\    i' 


\  M'V.n^ 


^^  OF  ?mclr^ 


^OIOGICAL  SE«^^^ 


18A7 


BX  9815  .C4  18A7  v. 6 
Channing,  William  Ellery, 

1780-1842. 
The  works  of  William  E. 

Channing,  D.  D 


THE 


WORKS 


WILLIAM  E.  CHANNING,  D.  D. 


SEVENTH   COMPLETE    EDITION, 


AN  INTRODUCTION. 


VOL.  VI. 


BOSTON: 
JAMES  MUNROE  AND  COMPANY. 

1847. 


EMANCIPATION. 


1* 


\:'.: 


0*L 


INTRODUCTORY   REMARKS. 


The  following  tract  grew  almost  insensibly  out  of  the 
strong  impressions  received  from  recent  accounts  of  the 
emancipated  British  Islands.  Joseph  John  Gurney,  well 
known  among  us  as  a  member  and  minister  of  the  Quaker 
denomination,  was  so  kind  as  to  visit  me  after  his  return 
from  the  West  Indies,  and  then  transmitted  to  me  his 
"Familiar  Letters  to  Henry  Clay,"*  describing  a  winter 
in  those  regions.  The  satisfaction  which  I  felt  was  so 
great  that  I  could  not  confine  it  to  myself.  I  began  to 
write,  as  a  man  begins  to  talk  after  hearing  good  news. 
Many  thoughts  connected  with  the  topic  rushed  succes- 
sively into  my  mind  ;  and  gradually,  and  with  little  labor, 
this  slight  work  took  the  form  it  now  wears.  I  am  en- 
couraged to  hope  that  it  is  of  some  little  value,  from  the 
spontaneousness  of  its  grow^th. 

This  tract  was  prepared  for  the  press  some  time  ago, 
and  should  have  been  published  immediately  after  the  ap- 
pearance of  Mr.  Gurney 's  Letters.  But  I  was  discouraged 
by  the  preoccupation  of  the  minds  of  the  whole  communi- 
ty with  the  politics  of  the  day.  I  was  obliged  to  wait  for 
the  storm  to  pass  ;  and  I  now  send  it  forth  in  the  hope, 
that  some,  at  least,  are  at  leisure  to  give  me  a  short  hear- 
ing. Not  that  I  expect  to  be  heard  very  widely.  No  one 
knows,  more  than  I  do,  the  want  of  popularity  of  the  sub- 

*  The  book  is  entitled,  •'  Familiar  Letters  to  Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky, 
describing  a  Winter  in  the  West  Indies.     By  Joseph  John  Gurney." 


8  INTRODUCTORY   RE.-MARKS. 

ject.  Multitudes  would  think  it  a  waste  of  time  to  give 
their  thoughts  to  this  great  question  of  justice  and  hu- 
manity. But  still,  there  are  not  a  few  to  whom  the  truth 
will  be  welcome.  Such  will  find  that  in  these  pages  I  am 
not  going  again  over  the  ground  which  I  have  already 
travelled  ;  and  I  hope  they  will  feel,  that,  having  begun 
with  "  Slavery,"  I  am  fitly  ending  with  "Emancipation." 
The  latter  part  of  the  tract  discusses  a  topic  which  I 
have  occasionally  touched  on,  but  which  needs  a  more 
full  exposition,  and  on  which  I  have  long  wished  to  com- 
municate my  views.  The  duties  of  the  Free  States  in 
regard  to  Slavery  need  to  be  better  understood,  and  my 
suggestions  I  hope  will  be  weighed  with  candor.  As  I 
have  taken  little  interest  for  years  in  the  politics  of  the 
day,  and  as  my  hope  for  the  country  rests  not  on  any 
party,  but  solely  on  our  means  of  education,  and  on 
moral  and  religious  influences,  I  ought  not  to  be  accused 
of  wishing  to  give  a  political  aspect  to  the  anti-slavery 
cause.  I  am  very  unwilling  that  it  should  take  the  form 
of  a  struggle  for  office  and  power.  Still,  it  has  political 
relations  ;  and  of  these  I  shall  speak  with  freedom.  The 
topic  is  an  exciting  one  ;  but,  as  I  look  at  it  with  perfect 
calmness,  I  hope  I  shall  not  disturb  the  minds  of  others. 

November   15,   1840. 


EMANCIPATION. 


At  length  a  report  of  West-Indian  Emancipation  has 
reached  us  to  which  some  heed  will  be  given  ;  and  it  is 
so  cheering  that  I  should  be  glad  to  make  it  more  ex- 
tensively known.  We  have  had,  already,  faithful  and 
affecting  accounts  of  this  great  social  revolution  ;  but, 
coming  from  men  who  bear  an  unpopular  name,  they 
have  received  little  attention.  Here  we  have  the  testi- 
mony of  a  man  in  no  w^ay  connected  with  American 
Abolitionists.  In  his  long  residence  among  us  Mr. 
Gurney  has  rather  shunned  this  party,  whether  justly 
or  wisely  I  do  not  say.  The  fact  is  stated  simply  to 
prevent  or  remove  a  prejudice  from  which  he  ought  not 
to  suffer.  He  came  to  this  country  on  no  mission  from 
the  enemies  of  slavery  in  his  ow^n  land.  Nor  did  he 
come,  as  so  many  travellers  do,  to  gather  or  invent  ma- 
terials for  a  marketable  book  ;  but  to  preach  the  Gos- 
pel, in  obedience  to  what  he  thought  "  a  heavenly  call." 
In  this  character  he  visited  many  parts  of  our  land,  and 
everywhere  secured  esteem  as  a  man,  and  won  no  small 
attention  to  his  religious  teachings.  After  many  labors 
here,  he  felt  himself  charged  wnth  a  divine  message  to 
the  West  Indies.  His  first  object  in  travelling  over 
those  islands  was  to  preach  ;  but,  in  his  various  journeys 
and  communications  with  individuals,  he  naturally  open- 


1 0  EMANCIPATION. 

ed  his  eyes  and  ears  to  the  subject  which  there  en- 
grosses almost  every  thought,  and  in  which  his  own 
philanthropy  gave  him  special  interest.  In  his  "  Let- 
ters "  he  furnishes  us  with  the  details  and  a  few  results 
of  his  observation,  interspersed  with  some  personal  ad- 
venture, and  with  notices  of  the  natural  appearances 
and  productions  of  regions  so  new  and  striking  to  an 
Englishman.  The  book  has  the  merit  of  perfectly  an- 
swering its  end,  which  is,  not  to  reason  about  emancipa- 
tion, but  to  make  the  reader  a  spectator,  and  to  give 
him  facts  for  his  own  reflection.  It  is  written  with  much 
ease,  simplicity,  clearness,  and  sometimes  with  beauty. 
It  is  especially  distinguished  by  a  spirit  of  kindness.  It 
not  only  expresses  a  sincere  Christian  philanthropy,  but 
breathes  a  good  humor  which  must  disarm  even  the 
most  prejudiced.  They  who  have  refused  to  read  anti- 
slavery  productions  because  steeped  in  gall  will  find  no 
bitter  ingredients  here.  Not  that  there  is  a  spirit  of 
compromise  or  timidity  in  our  author.  He  is  a  thor- 
oughly kindhearted  man,  and  conscientiously  believes 
that  he  can  best  serve  the  cause  of  truth  and  liberty  by 
giving  free  utterance  to  his  own  benignant  spirit.  The 
book  has  not  only  the  substantial  merit  of  fidelity  on  a 
subject  of  immense  importance,  but  another  claim,  which 
may  operate  more  widely  in  its  favor.  It  is  entertain- 
ing. It  does  not  give  us  dull  and  dry  wisdom,  but 
the  quick,  animated,  observations  of  a  man  who  saw 
with  his  heart  as  well  as  his  eyes,  who  took  a  strong 
interest  in  what  he  describes. 

That  the  book  is  entirely  impartial,  I  do  not  say. 
This  highest  merit  of  a  book  seems  to  require  more 
than  human  virtue.  To  see  things  precisely  as  they 
are,  with  not  a   shade  or  coloring  from   our  own  preju- 


EMANCIPATION.  1 1 

dices  or  affections,  is  the  last  triumph  of  self-denial. 
The  most  honest  often  see  what  they  want  to  see  ;  and 
a  man  so  honored  as  Mr.  Gurney  is  very  apt  to  be 
told  what  he  wants  to  hear.  But  the  book  bears  strong 
marks  of  truth.  The  uprightness  of  the  author  secures 
us  against  important  error.  Let  even  large  deductions 
be  made  for  his  feelings,  as  a  Quaker,  against  slavery, 
-for  his  sympathy  with  the  negro  and  the  negro's  friends  ; 
after  every  allowance,  the  great  truth  will  come  out, 
that  the  hopes  of  the  most  sanguine  advocates  of  eman- 
cipation have  been  realized,  if  not.  surpassed,  in  the 
"West  Indies. 

Such  a  book  is  much  needed.  There  has  been  in 
this  country  a  backwardness,  almost  an  unwillingness,  to 
believe  good  reports  from  the  West  Indies.  Not  a  few 
have  desired  to  hear  evil,  and  have  propagated  so  in 
dustriously  every  fiction  or  exaggeration  unfavorable  to 
freedom,  that  the  honest  and  benevolent  have  been  mis- 
led. The  general  state  of  mind  among  us  in  regard  to 
West-Indian  emancipation  has  been  disheartening.  So 
deadly  a  poison  has  Southern  slavery  infused  into  the 
opinions  and  feelings  of  the  North,  especially  in  the 
larger  cities,  that  few  cordial  wishes  for  the  success  of 
emancipation  have  met  our  ears.  Stray  rumors  of  the 
failure  of  the  experiment  in  this  or  that  island  have 
been  trumpeted  through  the  country  by  the  newspapers, 
and  the  easy  faith  of  the  multitude  has  been  practised 
on  till  their  sympathies  with  the  oppressed  have  become 
blunted.  I  have  myself  seen  the  countenance  of  a  man 
not  wanting  in  general  humanity  brighten  at  accounts 
of  the  bad  working  of  emancipation.  In  such  a  state 
of  feeling  and  opinion,  a  book  like  Mr.  Gurney's  is 
invaluable       The    truth    is    told   simply,   kindly  ;    and, 


12  EMANCIPATION. 

though   it  may  receive  httle  aid  from  our  newspapers, 

must  find  its  way  into  the  hands  of  many  honest  readers. 

I  offer  a  few  extracts,  not  to  take  the  place  of  the  book, 

but  in  the  hope  of  drawing  to  it  more  general  attention. 

So  various  and  interesting  are  the  details,  and  so  suited 

to  the  various  prejudices  and  misapprehensions  common 

in  our   country,   that  my  only  difficulty  is    to  make  a 

selection,  —  to   know  where  to  stop.     He  first  visited 

Tortola. 

''  We  could  not  but  feel  an  intense  interest  in  making 
our  first  visit  to  a  British  island  peopled  with  emancipat- 
ed negroes.  Out  of  a  population  of  nearly  five  thousand, 
there  are  scarcely  more  than  two  hundred  white  persons; 
but  we  heard  of  no  inconveniences  arising  from  this  dis- 
parity. We  had  letters  to  Dr.  Dyott,  the  stipendiary 
magistrate,  and  to  some  of  the  principal  planters,  who 
greeted  us  with  a  warm  welcome,  and  soon  relieved  us 
from  our  very  natural  anxiety  by  assuring  us  that  free- 
dom was  working  well  in  Tortola.  One  of  our  first  visits 
was  to  a  school  for  black  children,  under  the  care  of 
Alexander  Bott,  the  pious  minister  of  the  parish  church. 
It  was  in  good  order,  —  the  children  answered  our  ques- 
tions well.  We  then  proceeded  to  the  jail  ;  in  which,  if 
my  memory  serves  me  right,  we  found  only  one  prisoner, 
with  the  jailer  and  the  judge  !  Our  kind  friend,  Francis 
Spencer  Wigley,  the  chief  justice  of  the  British  Virgin 
Islands,  happened  to  be  there,  and  cheered  us  with  the 
information,  that  crime  had  vastly  decreased  since  the 
period  of  full  emancipation."  —  p.  25. 

His  next  visit  was  to  St.  Christopher's. 

"  I  mounted  one  of  the  governor's  horses,  and  enjoyed 
a  solitary  ride  in  the  country.  Although  it  was  the  sev- 
enth day  of  the  week,  usually  applied  by  the  emancipated 
laborers  to  their  private  purposes,  I  observed  many  of 
them  diligently  at  work  on  the  cane  grounds,  cutting  the 
canes  for  the  mill.  Their  aspect  was  that  of  physical 
vigor  and  cheerful  contentment,  and  all  my  questions,  as 
I  passed  along,  were  answered  satisfactorily.  On  my 
way  I  ventured  to  call  at  one  of  the  estates,  and  found  it 


EMANCIPATION.  13 

was  the  home  of  Robert  Claxton,  the  solicitor-general  of 
the  colony,  a  gentleman  of  great  intelligence  and  re- 
spectability. He  was  kind  enough  to  impart  a  variety  of 
useful,  and,  in  general,  cheering  information.  One  fact 
mentioned  by  him  spoke  volumes.  Speaking  of  a  small 
property  on  the  island  belonging  to  himself,  he  said,  '  Six 
years  ago,  (that  is,  shortly  before  the  Act  of  Emancipa- 
tion,) it  was  worth  only  j£ '2,000,  with  the  slaves  upon  it. 
Now,  without  a  single  slave,  it  is  worth  three  times  the 
money.  I  would  not  sell  it  for  <£  6,000.'  This  remarka- 
ble rise  in  the  value  of  property  is  by  no  means  confined 
to  particular  estates.  I  was  assured,  that,  as  compared 
with  those  times  of  depression  and  alarm  which  preceded 
the  Act  of  Emancipation,  it  is  at  once  general  and  very 
considerable.  I  asked  the  President  Crook,  and  some 
other  persons,  whether  there  was  a  single  individual  on 
the  island  who  wished  for  the  restoration  of  slavery. 
Answer,  '  Certainly  not  one.'  "  —  p.  34. 

"  'They  will  do  an  infinity  of  work,'  said  one  of  my 
informants,  '^br  ivages.' 

"  This  state  of  things  is  accompanied  by  a  vast  increase 
in  their  own  comforts.  Our  friend  C adman,  the  Metho- 
dist minister,  v/as  on  this  station  during  slavery,  in  the 
year  ]8'26.  He  has  now  returned  to  it  under  freedom. 
'  The  change  for  the  better,'  he  observed,  '  in  the  dress, 
demeanour,  and  welfare  of  the  people,  is  prodigious.''  The 
imports  are  vastly  increased.  The  duties  on  them  were 
£  1,000  more  in  1838  than  in  1837  ;  and  in  1839,  double 
those  of  1833,  within  £150.  This  surprising  increase  is 
owing  to  the  demand  on  the  part  of  the  free  laborers 
for  imported  goods,  especially  for  articles  of  dress.  The 
difficulty  experienced  by  the  gentry  living  in  the  town  in 
procuring  fowls,  eggs,  &c.,  from  the  negroes  is  consider- 
ably increased.  The  reason  is  well  known, — the  labor- 
ers make  use  of  them  for  home  consumption.  Marriage 
is  now  become  frequent  amongst  them,  and  a  profusion 
of  eggs  is  expended  on  their  wedding  cakes  !  Doubtless 
they  will  soon  learn  to  exchange  these  freaks  of  luxury 
for  the  gradual  acquisition  of  wealth."  —  p.  36. 

He  next  visited  x\ntigua. 

''Our  company  was  now  joined  by  Nathaniel  Gilbert, 
an  evangelical  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 

VOL.   VI.  2 


14  EMANCIPATION. 

a  large  proprietor  and  planter  on  the  island.  Both  he 
and  Sir  William  [the  governor]  amply  confirmed  our 
previous  favorable  impressions  respecting  the  state  of 
the  colony.  On  my  inquiring  of  them  respecting  the  value 
of  landed  property,  their  j"int  answer  was  clear  and  de- 
cided. 'At  the  lowest  computation,  the  land,  without  a 
single  slave  upon  it,  is  fully  as  valuable  now,  as  it  was, 
including  all  the  slaves,  before  emancipation.'  In  other 
words,  the  value  of  the  slaves  is  already  transferred  to 
the  land.  Satisfactory  as  is  this  computation,  I  have  ev- 
ery reason  to  believe  that  it  is  much  below  the  mark. 
AVith  respect  to  real  property  in  the  town  of  St.  John's, 
it  has  risen  in  value  with  still  greater  rapidity.  A  large 
number  of  new  stores  have  been  opened  ;  new  houses  are 
built  or  building  ;  the  streets  have  been  cleared  and  im- 
proved ;  trade  is  greatly  on  the  increase  ;  and  the  whole 
place  wears  the  appearance  of  progressive  wealth  and 
prosperity."  —  p.  4S. 

"Extensive  inquiry  has  led  us  to  the  conviction,  that 
on  most  of  the  properties  of  Antigua,  and,  in  general, 
throughout  the  West  Indies,  one  third  only  of  the  slaves 
were  operative.  What  with  childhood,  age,  infirmity, 
sickness.  >ham  sickness,  and  other  causes,  full  two  thirds 
of  the  negro  population  might  be  regarded  as  dead  weight. 
—  The  pecuniary  saving,  on  many  of  the  estates  in  An- 
tigua, by  the  change  of  slave  for  free  labor,  is,  at  least, 
iliirly  per  cevt.'^ — pp.  45,  46. 

"We  had  appointed  a  meeting  at  a  country  village 
called  Parham.  It  was  a  morning  of  violent  rain  ;  but 
about  two  hundred  negroes  braved  the  weather,  and  unit- 
ed with  us  in  public  worship.  It  is  said,  that  they  are  less 
willing  to  come  out  to  their  places  of  worship  in  the  rain 
than  was  the  case  formerly.  The  reason  is  curious. 
They  now  have  shoes  and  stockings,  which  they  are  un- 
willing to  expose  to  the  mud. "  —  p.  47. 

"  It  is  a  cheering  circumstance,  of  no  small  importance, 
that  there  are  no  less,  as  we  were  told,  than  seven  thou- 
sand scholars  in  the  various  charity  schools  of  Antigua. 
In  all  these  schools  the  Bible  is  read  and  taught.  Who 
can  doul)t  the  beneficial  moral  efiect  of  these  extensive 
efforts  ?  "  —  p.  48. 

"The  vicar  of  St.  John's,  during  the  last  seven  years 
of  slavery,   married   only  one  hundred    and  ten   pairs  of 


EMANCIPATION.  1 5 

negroes.     In  the  single  year  of  freedom,  1839,  the  num- 
ber of  pairs  married  by  him  was  )85. 

"  With  respect  to  crime,  it  has  been  rapidly  diminish- 
in^r  during  the  last  few  years.  The  numbers  committed 
to'^the  house  of  correction  in  1837 — chiefly  for  petty 
offences,  formerly  punished  on  the  estates  —  were  850  ; 
in  1838,  only  244;  in  1839,  311.  The  number  left  in 
the  prison  at  the  close  of  1837  was  147  ;  at  the  close 
of  1839,  only  35. 

"Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  personal  comforts 
of  the  laborers  have  been  in  the  mean  time  vastly  in- 
creased. The  duties  on  imports  in  1833  (the  last  year 
of  slavery)  were  £  13,576  ;  in  1839  they  were  £24,650. 
This  augmentation  has  been  occasioned  by  the  importa- 
tion of  dry  goods  and  other  articles,  for  which  a  demand, 
entirely  new,  has  arisen  among  the  laboring  population. 
The  quantity  of  bread  and  meat  used  as  tood  by  the 
laborers  is  surprisingly  increased.  Their  wedding  cakes 
and  dinners  are  extravagant,  even  to  the  point,  at  times, 
of  drinking  champagne  ! 

"  In  connexion  with  every  congregation  in  the  island, 
whether  of  the  Church  of  England  or  among  the  Dis- 
senters, has  been  formed  a  friendly  society.  The  la- 
borers subscribe  their  weekly  pittances  to  these  insti- 
tutions, and  draw  out  comfortable  supplies,  in  case  of 
sickness,  old  age,  burials,  and  other  exigencies.  Thus 
is  the  neorro  gradually  trained  to  the  habits  of  prudence 
and  foresight."  —  pp.  A8,  49. 

"A  female  proprietor  who  had  become  embarrassed 
was  advised  to  sell  off  part  of  her  property  in  small  lots. 
The  experiment  answered  her  warmest  expectations. 
The  laborers  in  the  neighbourhood  bought  up  all  the 
little  freeholds  with  extreme  eagerness,  made  their  pay- 
ments faithfully,  and  lost  no  time  in  settling  on  the  spots 
which  they  had  purchased.  They  soon  framed  their 
houses,  and  brought  their  jjardens  into  useful  cultivation 
with  yams,  bananas,  plantains,  pine-apples,  and  other 
fruits  and  vegetables,  including  plots  of  sugar  cane.  In 
this  way  Augusta  and  Liherta  sprang  up  as  if  by  magic. 
1  visited  several  of  the  cottages,  in  company  with  the 
rector  of  the  parish,  and  was  surprised  by  the  excellence 
of  the  buildings,  as  well  as  by  the  neat  furniture  and 
cleanly  littlo  articles  of  daily  use  which  we  found  within 


1 6  E1VL4NCTPATI0N. 

It  was  a  scene  of  contentment  and  happiness  ;  and  I  may 
certainly  add,  of  industry  ;  for  these  little  freeholders 
occupied  only  their  leisure  hours  in  working  on  their 
own  grounds.  They  were  also  earning  wages  as  laborers 
on  the  neighbouring  estates,  or  working  at  English  Har- 
bour as  mechanics."  —  pp.  49,  50. 

"We  were  now  placed  in  possession  of  clear  docu- 
mentary evidence  respecting  the  staple  produce  of  the 
island.  The  average  exports  of  the  last  five  years  of 
slavery  (1829  to  1833,  inclusive)  were,  sugar,  12,189 
hogsheads  ;  molasses,  3,308  puncheons  ;  and  rum,  2,463 
puncheons.  Those  of  the  first  five  years  of  freedom 
(1834  to  1838,  inclusive)  were,  sugar,  13,545  hogsheads  ; 
molasses,  8,308  puncheons  ;  and  rum,  1,109  puncheons  ; 
showing  an  excess  of  1 ,356  hogsheads  of  sugar,  and  of 
5,000  puncheons  of  molasses  ;  and  a  diminution  of  1,359 
puncheons  of  rum.  This  comparison  is  surely  a  triumph- 
ant one  ;  not  only  does  it  demonstrate  the  advantage 
derived  from  free  labor  during  a  course  of  five  years,  but 
affords  a  proof  that  many  of  the  planters  of  Antigua  have 
ceased  to  convert  their  molasses  into  rum.  It  ought  to 
be  observed,  that  these  five  years  of  freedom  included 
two  of  drought,  one,  very  calamitous.  The  statement 
for  1839  forms  an  admirable  climax  to  this  account.  It 
is  as  follows  :  sugar,  22,383  hogsheads  (10,000  beyond 
the  last  average  of  slavery)  ;  13,433  puncheons  of  mo- 
lasses (also  10,000  beyond  that  average)  ;  and  only  582 
puncheons  of  rum  !  That,  in  the  sixth  year  of  freedom, 
afler  the  fair  trial  of  five  years,  the  exports  of  sugar  from 
Antigua  almost  doubled  the  average  of  the  last  live  years 
of  slavery,  is  a  fact  which  precludes  the  necessity  of  all 
other  evidence.  By  what  hands  was  this  vast  crop  raised 
and  realized  ?  By  the  hands  of  that  lazy  and  impracti- 
cable race,  (as  they  have  often  been  described,)  the 
negroes.  And  under  what  stimulus  has  the  work  been 
effected  .^  Solely  under  that  of  moderate  wages."  —  p.  53. 

He  next  visited  Dominica,  of  which  he  gives  equally 
favorable  accounts  ;  but  I  hasten  to  make  a  few  ex- 
tracts from  his  notices  of  Jamaica,  the  island  from 
which  the  most  unfavorable  reports  have  come,  and 
in  which  the  unwise  and  unkind  measures  of  the  pro- 


EMANCIPATION.  17 

prieiors,  particularly  in  regard  to  rents,  have  done 
much  to  counteract  the  good  influences  of  emanci- 
pation. 

"  We  were  glad  to  observe  that  the  day  [Sunday] 
was  remarkably  well  observed  at  Kingston, — just  as  it 
is  in  many  of  the  cities  of  your  highly  favored  Union.  A 
wonderful  scene  we  witnessed  that  morning  in  Samuel 
Oughton's  Baptist  Chapel,  which  we  attended  without 
having  communicated  to  the  people  any  previous  notice 
of  our  coming.  The  minister  was  so  obliging  as  to  make 
way  for  us  on  the  occasion,  and  to  invite  us  to  hold  our 
meeting  with  his  nock  after  the  manner  of  Friends. 
Such  a  flock  we  had  not  before  seen,  consisting  of  nearly 
three  thousand  black  people,  chiefly  emancipated  slaves, 
attired,  after  their  favorite  custom,  in  neat  white  raiment, 
and  most  respectable  and  orderly  in  their  demeanour  and 
appearance.  They  sat  in  silence  with  us,  in  an  exem- 
plary manner,  and  appeared  both  to  understand  and  ap- 
preciate the  doctrines  of  divine  truth  preached  on  the 
occasion.  The  congregation  is  greatly  increased,  both  in 
numbers  and  respectability,  since  the  date  of  full  freedom. 
They  pour  in  from  the  country,  partly  on  foot,  and  partly 
on  mules  or  horses,  of  their  own.  They  now  entirely 
support  the  mission,  and  are  enlarging  their  chapeT  at 
the  expense  of  j£!,000  sterling.  Their  subscriptions  to 
this  and  other  collateral  objects  are  at  once  voluntary 
and  very  liberal,  '  I  have  brought  my  mite  for  the  chap- 
el,' said  a  black  woman,  once  a  slave,  to  S.  Oughton,  a 
day  or  two  before  our  meeting  ;  '  I  am  sorry  it  is  no 
more  '  ;  she  then  put  into  his  hand  two  pieces  of  gold 
amounting  to  five  dollars."  —  pp.  74,  75. 

"  Here  it  may  be  well  to  notice  the  fact,  that  the  great 
majority  of  estates  in  Jamaica  belong  to  absentee  pro- 
prietors, who  reside  in  England.  In  Jam.aica,  they  are 
placed  under  the  care  of  some  attorney,  or  representative 
of  the  owner  ;  one  attorney  often  undertaking  the  care 
of  numerous  estates.  Under  the  attorney  is  the  over- 
seer, on  each  particular  property,  on  whom  the  manage- 
ment almost  exclusively  devolves.  This  state  of  things  is 
extremely  unfavorable  to  the  welfare  of  Jamaica.  If  the 
proprietors  cannot  give  their  personal  attention  to  their 

2* 


1 B  ^  EMANCIPATION. 

estates,  it  would  certainly  be  a  better  plan  to  lease  them 
to  eliorible  tenants  on  the  spot,  —  a  practice  which  has 
ot'  late  years  been  adopted  in  many  instances.  It  is  only 
surprising  that  estates,  never  visited  by  the  proprietor, 
and  seldom  by  the  attorney,  but  left  to  the  care  of  inex- 
perienced young  men,  often  of  immoral  character,  should 
prosper  at  all.  Nor  would  they  prosper  even  as  they 
now  do,  but  for  two  causes  ;  first,  the  exuberant  bounty 
of  nature,  and  secondly,  the  orderly,  inoffensive  conduct, 
and  patient  industry,  of  the  negro  race."  —  p.  85. 

"  The  rapid  diffusion  of  marriage  among  the  negroes, 
and  the  increase  of  it  even  among  the  white  inhabitants 
in  Jamaica,  is  one  of  the  happiest  results  of  freedom. 
We  were  assured,  on  good  authority,  that  four  times  as 
many  marriages  took  place  last  year  in  Jamaica  as  in  an 
equal  population,  on  an  average,  in  England,  —  a  fact 
which  proves  not  only  that  numerous  new  connexions 
are  formed,  but  also  that  multitudes  who  were  formerly 
living  as  man  and  wife  without  the  right  sanction  are 
now  convinced  of  the  sinfulness  of  the  practice,  and  are 
availing  themselves  with  eagerness  of  the  marriage  cov- 
enant. It  appears  that  upwards  of  sixteen  hundred  negro 
couples  were  married  in  the  Baptist  churches  alone  dur- 
ing the  year  1839."  — p.  86. 

*'  In  the  Parish  (or  Countij)  of  St.  Mary  rent  and  vvages 
have  been  arranged  quite  independently  of  each  other, 
and  labor  has  been  suffered  to  find  its  market  without 
obstruction.  The  consequence  is,  that  there  have  been 
no  differences,  and  the  people  are  working  well.  The 
quantity  of  work  obtained  from  a  freeman  there  is  far 
beyond  the  old  task  of  the  slave.  In  the  laborious  occu- 
pation of  holing,  the  emancipated  negroes  perform  double 
the  work  of  the  slave  in  a  day.  In  road-making  the 
day's  task  under  slavery  was  to  break  four  barrels  of 
stone.  JVoiv,  by  task-work,  a  weak  hand  will  fill  eight 
barrels,  a  strong  one,  from  ten  to  twelve."  —  p.  89. 

"At  the  Baptist  station  at  Sligoville  we  spent  several 
hours.  It  is  located  on  a  lofty  hill,  and  is  surrounded  by 
fifty  acres  of  fertile  mountain  land.  This  property  is 
divided  into  one  hundred  and  fifty  freehold  lots,  fifty  of 
which  had  been  already  sold  to  the  emancipated  laborers, 
and  had  proved  a  timely  refuge  for  many  laborers  who 
had   been  driven  by  hard  iisage  from  their  former  homes. 


EMANCIPATION.  19 

Some  of  them  had  built  good  cottages  ;  others,  temporary 
hdts  ;  and  others,  again,  were  preparing  the  ground  for 
building.  Their  gardens  were  cleared,  or  in  process  of 
clearing,  and  in  many  cases  already  brought  into  fine 
cultivation.  Not  a  hoe,  I  believe,  had  ever  been  driven 
into  that  land  before.  J^ow,  a  village  had  risen  up,  with 
every  promise  of  comfort  and  prosperity,  and  the  land 
was  likely  to  produce  a  vast  abundance  of  nutritious  food 
The  people  settled  there  were  all  married  pairs,  mostly 
with  families,  and  the  men  employed  the  bulk  of  their 
time  in  working  for  wages  on  the  neighbouring  estates. 
The  chapel  and  the  school  were  immediately  at  hand, 
and  the  religious  character  of  the  people  stood  high. 
Never  did  I  witness  a  scene  of  greater  industry,  or  one 
more  marked  by  contentment  for  the  present  and  hope 
for  the  future.  How  instructive  to  remember  that  two 
years  ago  this  peaceful  village  had  no  existence!"  — 
p.  90. 

"On  our  return  home  we  visited  two  neighbouring 
estates,  of  about  equal  size,  (I  believe,)  and  equal  fer- 
tility ;  both  among  the  finest  properties,  for  natural  and 
local  advantages,  which  I  anywhere  saw  in  Jamaica. 
One  was  in  difficulty  ;  the  other  all  prosperity.  The 
first  was  the  estate  already  alluded  to,  which  had  been 
deprived  of  so  many  hands  by  vain  attempts  to  compel 
the  labor  of  freemen.  There,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  I 
saw,  as  we  passed  by,  the  clear  marks  of  that  violence 
by  which  the  people  had  been  expelled.  The  second, 
called  '  Dawkin's  Cayrnanas,'  was  under  the  enlight- 
ened attorneyship  of  Judge  Bernard,  who,  with  his  lady, 
and  the  respectable  overseer,  met  us  on  the  spot.  On 
this  property  the  laborers  were  independent  tenants. 
Their  rent  was  settled  according  to  the  money  value  of 
the  tenements  which  they  occupied,  and  they  were  al- 
lowed to  take  their  labor  to  the  best  market  they  could 
find.  As  a  matter  of  course,  they  took  it  to  the  home  mar- 
ket ;  and  excellently  were  they  working  on  the  property 
of  their  old  master.  The  attorney,  the  overseer,  and  the 
laborers,  all  seemed  equally  satisfied,  equally  at  their 
ease.  Here,  then,  was  one  property  which  would  occa- 
sion a  had  report  of  Jamaica  ;  another  which  would  as 
surely  give  rise  to  a  good  report.  As  it  regards  the  prop- 
erties themselves,  both  reports  are  true  ;    and  they  are 


20  EMANCIPATION. 

the  respective  results  of  two  opposite  modes  of  man- 
agement. 

"At  Dawkin's  Caymanas  we  had  the  pleasure  of  wit- 
nessing an  interesting  spectacle  ;  for  the  laborers  on  the 
proj)erty,  with  their  wives,  sons,  and  daughters,  were  on 
that  day  met  at  a  picnic  dinner.  The  table,  of  vast 
length,  was  spread  under  a  v/attled  building  erected  for 
the  purpose,  and  at  the  convenient  hour  of  six  in  the 
evening  (after  the  day's  work  was  finished)  was  loaded 
with  all  sorts  of  good  fare,  —  soup,  fish,  fowls,  pigs,  and 
joints  of  meat,  in  abundance.  About  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men  and  women  of  the  African  race,  attired  with 
the  greatest  neatness,  were  assembled,  in  much  harmony 
and  order,  to  partake  of  the  feast  ;  but  no  drink  was 
provided  stronger  than  water.  It  was  a  sober,  substan- 
tial repast  ;  the  festival  of  peace  and  freedom.  This 
dinner  was  to  have  taken  place  on  New-Year's  day  ;  but 
it  so  happened  that  a  Baptist  meeting-house  in  another 
part  of  the  island  had  been  destroyed  by  fire  ;  and,  at 
the  suggestion  of  their  minister,  these  honest  people 
agreed  to  waive  their  dinner,  and  to  subscribe  their 
money,  instead,  to  the  rebuilding  of  the  meeting-house. 
For  this  purpose  they  raised  a  noble  sum  (I  believe 
considerably  upwards  of  £  100  sterling)  ;  and  now,  in  the 
third  month  of  the  year,  finding  that  matters  were  work- 
ing well  with  them,  they  thought  it  well  to  indulge  them- 
selves with  their  social  dinner.  By  an  unanimous  vote, 
they  commissioned  me  to  present  a  message  of  their  af- 
fectionate regards  to  Thomas  Clarkson  and  Thomas 
Fowell  Buxton,  the  two  men  to  whom,  of  all  others,  per- 
haps, they  were  the  most  indebted  for  their  present  en- 
joyment." —  pp.  91,  92. 

"After  breakfast  we  drove  to  Kelly's,  one  of  Lord 
Sligo's  properties  — We  saw  the  people  on  this  property 
busily  engaged  in  the  laborious  occupation  of  holing,  — 
a  work  for  which  ploughing  is  now  pretty  generally  sub- 
stituted in  Jamaica.  '  How  are  you  all  getting  along  ?  ' 
said  my  companion,  to  a  tail,  bright-looking  black  man, 
busily  engaged  with  his  hoe.  '  Right  well,  massa,  right 
well,'  he  replied.  'I  am  from  America,'  said  my  friend, 
*  where  there  are  many  slaves  ;  what  shall  I  say  to  them 
from  you  ?  shall  I  tell  them  that  freedom  is  working  well 
here  ? '     '  Yes,  massa,'  said  he,  '  much  well  under  free- 


EMANCIPATION.  21 

dom,  —  thank  God  for  it  !'  '  Much  well '  they  were  in- 
deed doing,  for  they  were  earning  a  dollar  for  every 
hundred  cane  holes  ;  a  great  effort,  certainly,  but  one 
which  many  of  them  accomplished  by  four  o'clock  m  the 
afternoon.  '  How  is  this  ?  '  asked  the  same  friend,  as  he 
felt  the  lumps  or  welts  on  the  shoulder  of  another  man. 
'O,  massa,'  cried  the  negro,  'I  was  ^flogged  when  a 
slave,  —  no  more  whip  now,  —  all  free.'  "  —  p.  96. 

"  The  prosperity  of  the  planters  in  Jamaica  must  not 
be  measured  bv  the  mere  amount  of  the  produce  of  sugar 
or  coffee  as  compared  with  the  time  of  slavery.  Even 
where  produce  is  diminished,  profit  will  be  increased,  — 
if  freedom  be  fairly  tried,  —  by  the  saving  of  expense. 
*  I  had  rather  make  sixty  tierces  of  coffee,'  said  A.  B., 
'under  freedom,  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  under 
slavery;  such  is  the  saving  of  expense  that  I  make  a  bet- 
ter profit  by  it  ;  nevertheless,  I  mean  to  make  one  hundred 
and  twenhj,  as  before.''"  —  p.  118. 

"  'Do  you  see  that  excellent  new  stone  wall  round  the 
field  below  us  .>  '  said  the  young  physician  to  me,  as  we 
stood  at  A.  B.'s  front  door,  surveying  the  delightful  scen- 
ery. 'That  wall  could  scarcely  have  been  built  at  all 
under  slavery  or  the  apprenticeship;  the  necessary  labor 
could  not  then  have  been  hired  at  less  than  £o  currency, 
or  about  $13,  per  chain.  Under  freedom  it  cost  only 
from  'ikS-50  to  $4  per  chain,  —  not  one  third  of  the 
amount.  Still  more  remarkable  is  the  fact,  that  the  whole 
of  it  was  built,  under  the  stimulus  of  job-work,  by  an 
invalid  negro,  who,  during  slavery,  had  been  given  up  to 
total  inaction.'  This  was  the  substance  of  our  conver- 
sation The  information  was  afterwards  fully  confirmed 
by  the  proprietor.  Such  was  the  fresh  blood  infused  into 
the  veins  of  this  decrepid  person  by  the  genial  hand  ot 
freedom,  that  he  had  been  redeemed  from  absolute  use- 
lessness,  had  executed  a  noble  work,  had  greatly  im- 
proved his  master's  property,  and,  finally,  had  realized 
for  himself  a  handsome  sum  of  money.  This  single  tact 
is  admirably  and  undeniably  illustrative  of  the  principles 
of  the  case  ;  and  for  that  purpose  is  as  good  as  a  thou- 
sand."—p.  119. 

"  I  will  take  the  present  opportunity  of  offering  to  tny 
attention  the  account  of  exports  from  Jamaica  (as  ex- 
hibited in  the  return  printed  for  the  House  of  Assembly) 


22  EMANCIPATION. 

for  the  last  year  of  the  apprenticeship,  and  the  first  of  full 
freedom. 

Hhd3. 

Sugar,  for  the  year  ending  9th-month  (Sept.)  30, 

1838,        ...  ....  53,825 

Do.  do.  do.  do.  1839,  45,359 


Apparent  diminution,     8,46G 

"  This  difference  is  much  less  considerable  than  many 
persons  have  been  led  to  imagine  ;  the  real  diminution, 
however,  is  still  less  ;  because  there  has  lately  taken 
place  in  Jamaica  an  increase  in  the  size  of  the  hogshead. 
Instead  of  the  old  measure,  which  contained  17  cwt.,  new 
ones  have  been  introduced,  containing  from  20  to  22  cwt., 
—  a  change  which,  for  several  reasons,  is  an  economical 
one  for  the  planter.  Allowing  only  five  per  cent,  for  this 
change,  the  deficiency  is  reduced  from  8,466  hogsheads, 
to  5,775  ;  and  this  amount  is  further  lessened  by  the  fact, 
that,  in  consequence  of  freedom,  there  is  a  vast  addition 
to  the  consumption  of  sugar  among  the  people  of  Jamaica 
itself,  and  therefore  to  the  home  sale. 

"  The  account  of  coffee  is  not  so  favorable. 

Cwt. 
Coffee,  for  the  year  ending  9th-month  (Sept.)  30, 

1838, 117,313 

Do.  do.  do.  do.  1839,  78,759 


Diminution  (about  one  third),  38,554 

"The  coffee  is  a  very  uncertain  crop,  and  the  deficien- 
cy, on  the  comparison  of  these  two  years,  is'not  greater, 
I  believe,  than  has  often  occurred  before.  We  are  also 
to  remember,  that,  both  in  sugar  and  coffee,  the  profit  to 
the  planter  may  be  increased  by  the  savin<y  of  expense, 
even  when  the  pi-oduce  is  diminished.  Still,  it  must  be 
allowed  that  some  decrease  has  taken  place  on  both  the 
articles,  in  connexion  with  the  change  of  system.  With 
regard  to  the  year  18  40,  it  is  expected  thai  coffee  will,  at 
least,  maintain  the  last  amount  ;  but  a  farther  decrease  on 
sugar  is  generally  anticipated. 

"Now  so  far  as  this  decrease  of  produce  is  connected 
with  the  change  of  system,  it  is  obviously  to  be  traced  to 
a  corresponding  decrease  in  the  quantity  of  labor.  But 
here  comes  the  critical  question,  —  tho  real  turning  point. 


EMANCIPATION.  23 

To  what  is  this  decrease  in  the  quantity  of  labor  owing  ? 
I  answer  deliberately,  but  without  reserve,  ^Mainly  to 
causes  which  class  under  slavery ^and  not  under  freedom.' 
It  is,  for  the  most  part,  the  result  of  those  impolitic  at- 
tempts to  force  the  labor  of  freemen  which  have  disgust- 
ed the  peasantry,  and  have  led  to  the  desertion  of  many 
of  the  estates. 

"It  is  a  cheering  circumstance,  that  the  amount  of 
planting  and  other  preparatory  labor  bestowed  on  the 
estates  during  the  autumn  of  1839  has  been  much  great- 
er, by  all  accounts,  than  in  the  autumn  of  1838.  This  is 
itself  the  effect  of  an  improved  understanding  between 
the  planters  and  the  peasants  ;  and  the  result  of  it  (if 
other  circumstances  be  equal)  cannot  fail  to  be  a  consid- 
erable increase  of  produce  in  1841.  I  am  told,  however, 
that  there  is  one  circumstance  which  may  possibly  prevent 
this  result,  as  it  regards  sugar.  It  is,  that  the  cultivation 
of  it  under  the  old  system  was  forced  on  certain  proper- 
ties, which,  from  their  situation  and  other  circumstances, 
were  wholly  unfit  for  the  purpose.  These  plantations  af- 
forded an  income  to  the  local  agents,  but  to  the  proprietors 
were  either  unprofitable  or  losing  concerns.  On  such 
properties,  under  those  new  circumstances  which  bring 
all  things  to  their  true  level,  the  cultivation  of  sugar  must 
cease. 

"  In  the  mean  time  the  imports  of  the  island  are  rapid- 
ly increasing  ;  trade  improving  ;  the  towns  thriving  ; 
new  tillages  rising  in  every  direction  ;  property  much 
enhanced  in  value  ;  well-managed  estates  productive  and 
profitable  ;  expenses  of  management  diminished  ;  short 
methods  of  labor  adopted  ;  provisions  cultivated  on  a 
larger  scale  than  ever  ;  and  the  people,  wherever  they 
are  properly  treated,  industrious,  contented,  and  gradu- 
ally accumulating  wealth." — pp.  132  —  134. 

"  My  narrative  respecting  the  British-West-India 
Islands  being  now  brought  to  a  close,  I  will  take  the 
liberty  of  concentrating  and  recapitulating  the  principal 
points  of  the  subject  in  a  few  distinct  propositions. 

"  1st.  The  emancipaied  negroes  are  working  well  on  the 
estates  of  their  old  masters.  —  Nor  does  Jamaica,  when 
duly  inspected  and  fairly  estimated,  furnish  any  exception 
to  the  general  result.  We  find,  that,  in  that  island,  wher- 
ever the  negroes  are  fain'i/,    Jnndly,  and  wisely  treated, 


24  EMANCIPATION. 

there  they  are  working  well  on  the  properties  of  their  old 
masters  ;  and  that  the  existing  instances  of  a  contrary 
description  must  be  ascribed  to  causes  which  class  under 
slavery,  and  not  underTreedom.  Let  it  not,  however,  be 
imagined,  that  the  negroes  who  are  not  working  on  the 
estates  of  their  old  masters  are,  on  that  account,  idle. 
Even  these  are,  in  general,  busily  employed  in  cultivating 
their  own  grounds,  in  various  descriptions  of  handicraft, 
in  lime-burninji  or  fishinij, — in  benefiting;  themselves  and 
the  community,  through  some  new,  but  equally  desirable 
medium.  Besides  all  this,  stone  walls  are  built,  new 
houses  erected,  pastures  cleaned,  ditches  dug,  meadows 
drained,  roads  made  and  macadamized,  stores  fitted  up, 
villages  formed,  and  other  beneficial  operations  effected  ; 
the  whole  of  which,  before  emancipation,  it  would  have 
been  a  folly  even  to  attempt.  The  old  notion,  that  the  ne- 
gro is,  by  constitution,  a  lazy  creature,  who  will  do  no 
work  at  all  except  by  compulsion,  is  now  for  ever  ex- 
ploded."—pp.  137,  138. 

"2d,  An  increased  quantity  of  work  thrown  upon  the 
market  is,  of  course,  followed  by  the  cheapening  of  labor.'* 
—  p.  138. 

"3d.  Real  propertij  has  risen  and  is  risiyig  in  value. — 
I  wish  it,  however,  to  be  understood,  that  the  comparison 
is  not  here  made  with  those  olden  times  of  slavery  when 
the  soils  of  the  islands  were  in  their  most  prolific  state, 
and  the  slaves  themselves  of  a. corresponding  value  ;  but 
with  those  days  of  depression  and  alarm  which  {Receded 
the  Act  of  Emancipation.  All  that  I  mean  to  assert  is, 
that  landed  property  in  the  British  colonies  has  touched 
the  bottom,  has  found  that  bottom  solid,  has  already  risen 
considerably,  and  is  now  on  a  steady  ascending  march 
towards  the  recovery  of  its  highest  value.  One  circum- 
stance which  greatly  contributed  to  produce  its  deprecia- 
tion was,  the  cry  of  interested  persons  who  wished  to  run 
it  down  ;  and  the  demand  for  it  which  has  arisen  among 
these  very  persons  is  now  restoring  it  to  its  rightful  value. 
Remember  the  old  gentleman  in  Antigua,  who  is  always 
complaining  of  the  efl^ects  of  freedom,  and  always  buying 
land.''—  pp.  139,  140. 

"4th.  The  personal  comforts  of  the  laboring  popula- 
tion, under  freedom,  are  multiplied  tenfold."  —  p.  140. 

"5th.  Lastly,  the  moral  and  religious   improvement  of 


EMANCIPATION.  25 

this  people,  under  freedom,  is  more  than  equal  to  the  in- 
crease of  their  comforts.  Under  this  head  there  are 
three  points  deserving,  respectively,  of  a  distinct  place  in 
our  memories.  First,  the  rapid  increase  and  vast  extent 
of  elementary  and  Christian  education,  —  schools  for  in- 
fants, young  persons,  and  adults,  multiplying  in  every 
direction.  Secondly,  the  gradual,  but  decided,  diminution 
of  crime,  amounting,  in  many  country  districts,  almost  to 
its  extinction.  Thirdly,  the  happy  change  of  the  general 
and  almost  universal  practice  of  concubinage  for  the 
equally  general  adoption  of  marriage  '  Concubinage,' 
says  Dr.  Stewart,  in  his  letter  to  me,  'the  universal  prac- 
tice of  the  colored  people,  has  wholly  disappeared  from 
amongst  them.  No  young  woman  of  color  thinks  of  form- 
ing such  connexions  now.'  What  is  more,  the  improved 
morality  of  the  blacks  is  reflecting  itself  on  the  white  in- 
habitants ;  even  the  overseers  are  ceasing,  one  after 
another,  from  a  sinful  mode  of  life,  and  are  forming  repu- 
table connexions  in  marriage.  But  while  these  three 
points  are  confessedly  of  high  importance,  there  is  a 
fourth  which  at  once  embraces  and  outweighs  them  all, 
—  1  mean  the  diffusion  of  vital  Christianity.  I  know  that 
great  apprehensions  were  entertained,  —  especially  in  this 
country,  —  l^est,  on  the  cessation  of  slavery,  the  negroes 
should  break  away  at  once  from  their  masters  and  their 
ministers.  But  freedom  has  come,  and  while  their  mas- 
ters have  not  been  forsaken,  their  religious  teachers  have 
become  dearer  to  them  than  ever.  Under  the  banner  of 
liberty,  the  churches  and  meeting-houses  have  been  en- 
larged and  multiplied,  the  attendance  has  become  regular 
and  devout,  the  congregations  have  in  many  cases  been 
more  than  doubled  ;  above  all,  the  conversion  of  souls 
(as  we  have  reason  to  believe)  has  been  going  on  to  an 
extent  never  before  known  in  these  colonies.  In  a  reli- 
gious point  of  view,  as  I  have  before  hinted,  the  wilder- 
ness, in  many  places,  has  indeed  begun  to  '  blossom  as 
the  rose.'  '  Instead  of  the  thorn'  has  'come  up  the  fir- 
tree,  and  instead  of  the  brier  '  has  'come  up  the  myrtle- 
tree,  and  it  shall  be  to  the  Lord  for  a  name  ;  for  an  ever- 
lasting sign,  that  shall  not  be  cut  off.'  "  —  pp.  141,  142. 

I  have  now  given  a  few  extracts  from  Mr.  Gurney's 
book.      They  need  no  comment.     Indeed,  nothing  can 

VOL.   VI.  3 


26  EMANCIPATION. 

be  said,  to  convince  or  move  the  reader,  if  these  simple 
records  of  emancipation  do  not  find  their  way  to  his 
heart.  In  the  whole  history  of  efforts  for  human  hap- 
piness it  is  doubtful  if  another  example  can  be  found 
of  so  great  a  revolution  accomplished  with  so  few  sacri- 
fices and  such  immediate  reward.  Compare  with  this 
the  American  Revolution,  which  had  for  its  end  to 
shake  off  a  yoke  too  light  to  be  named  by  the  side  of 
domestic  slavery.  Through  what  fields  of  blood  and 
years  of  suffering  did  we  seek  civil  freedom,  a  boon 
insignificant  in  comparison  with  freedom  from  an  own- 
er's grasp  !  It  is  the  ordinary  law  of  Providence,  that 
great  blessings  shall  be  gained  by  great  sacrifices,  and 
that  the  most  beneficial  social  changes  shall  bring  im- 
mediate suffering.  That  near  a  million  of  human  be- 
ings should  pass  in  a  day  from  the  deepest  degradation 
to  the  rights  of  freem.en  with  so  little  agitation  of  the 
social  system  is  a  fact  so  strange  that  we  naturally  sus- 
pect, at  first,  some  tinging  of  the  picture  from  the  au- 
thor's sympathies  ;  and  we  are  brought  to  full  conviction 
only  by  the  simplicity  and  minuteness  of  his  details. 
For  one,  I  should  have  rejoiced  in  emancipation  as  an 
unspeakable  good,  had  the  immediate  results  worn  a 
much  darker  hue.  I  wanted  only  to  know  that  social 
order  was  preserved,  that  the  laws  were  respected,  after 
emancipation.  I  felt,  that,  were  anarchy  escaped,  no 
evil  worse  than  slavery  could  take  its  place.  I  had  not 
forgotten  the  doctrine  of  our  fathers,  that  human  free- 
dom is  worth  vast  sacrifices,  that  it  can  hardly  be  bought 
at  too  great  a  price. 

I  proceed  now  to  offer  a  few  remarks  on  several 
topics  suggested  by  Mr.  Gurney's  book  ;  and  I  shall 
close  by  considering  the  duties  which  belong  to  individ- 
uals and  to  the  Free  States  in  relation  to  slavery. 


EMANCIPATION.  27 

The  first  topic  suggested  by  our  author,  and  perhaps 
the  most  worthy  of  note,  is  his  anxiety  to  show  that 
emancipation  has  been  accompanied  with  httle  pecu- 
niary loss,  that  as  a  moneyed  speculation  it  is  not  to  be 
condemned.  He  evidently  supposes  that  he  is  writing 
for  a  people  who  will  judge  of  this  grand  event  in  his- 
tory by  the  standard  of  commercial  profit  or  loss.  Tn 
this  view,  his  simple  book  tells  more  than  a  thousand 
satires  against  the  spirit  of  our  times.  In  speaking  of 
West-Indian  emancipation,  it  has  been  common  for 
men  to  say,  We  must  wait  for  the  facts  !  And  what 
facts  have  they  waited  for  ?  They  have  waited  to 
know  that  the  master,  after  fattening  many  years  on 
oppression,  had  lost  nothing  by  the  triumph  of  justice 
and  humanity  ;  that  the  slave,  on  being  freed,  was  to 
yield  as  large  an  income  as  before  to  his  employer. 
This  delicate  sensibility  to  the  rights  of  the  wrongdoer, 
this  concern  for  property,  this  unconcern  for  human  na- 
ture, is  a  sign  of  the  little  progress  made  even  here  by 
free  principles,  and  of  men's  ignorance  of  the  great  end 
of  social  union. 

Every  good  man  must  protest  against  this  mode  of 
settling  the  question  of  Emancipation.  It  seems  to  be 
taken  for  granted  by  not  a  few,  that,  if,  in  consequence 
of  this  event,  the  crops  have  fallen  off,  or  the  number 
of  coffee  bags  or  sugar  hogsheads  is  lessened,  then 
emancipation  is  to  be  pronounced  a  failure,  and  the 
great  act  of  freeing  a  people  from  the  most  odious 
bondage  is  to  be  set  down  as  folly.  At  the  North  and 
the  South  this  base  doctrine  has  seized  on  the  public 
mind.  It  runs  through  our  presses,  not  excepting  the 
more  respectable.  The  bright  promises  of  emancipa- 
tion are  too  unimportant  for  our  newspapers  ;  but  the 


28  EMANCIPATION. 

fearful  intelligence,  that  this  or  that  island  has  shipped 
fewer  hogsheads  of  sugar  than  in  the  days  of  slavery,  is 
thought  worthy  to  be  published  far  and  wide  ;  and  eman- 
cipation is  a  curse,  because  the  civilized  world  must  pay 
a  few  cents  more  to  bring  tea  or  coffee  to  the  due  de- 
gree of  sweetness.  Tt  passes  for  an  ^'ultraism"  of 
philanthropy,  to  prize  a  million  of  human  beings  above 
as  many  pounds  of  sugar. 

What  is  the  great  end  of  civilized  society  ?  Not 
coffee  and  sugar  ;  not  the  greatest  possible  amount  of 
mineral,  vegetable,  or  animal  productions  ;  but  the  pro- 
tection of  the  rights  of  all  its  members.  The  sacrifice 
of  rights,  especially  of  the  dearest  and  most  sacred,  to 
increase  of  property,  is  one  of  the  most  flagrant  crimes 
of  the  social  state.  That  every  man  should  have  his 
due,  not  that  a  few  proprietors  should  riot  on  the  toil, 
sweat,  and  blood  of  the  many,  —  this  is  the  great  design 
of  the  union  of  men  into  communities.  Emancipation 
was  not  m-eant  to  increase  the  crops,  but  to  restore  to 
human  beings  their  birthright,  to  give  to  every  man  the 
free  use  of  his  powers  for  his  own  and  others'  good. 

That  the  production  of  sugar  would  be  diminished  for 
a  time,  in  consequence  of  emancipation,  was  a  thing  to 
be  expected,  if  not  desired.  It  is  in  the  sugar  culture, 
that  the  slaves  in  the  West  Indies  have  been  and  are 
most  overworked.  In  Cuba,  we  are  told  by  men  who 
have  given  particular  attention  to  that  island,  the  mor- 
tality on  the  sugar  estates  is  ten  per  cent,  annually,  so 
that  a  whole  gang  is  used  up,  swept  of}',  in  ten  years. 
Suppose  emancipation  introduced  into  Cuba.  Would 
not  the  production  of  sugar  be  diminished  ?  Ought  not 
every  man  to  desire  the  diminution  :  I  do  not  say,  that 
sue))    atrocious    cruelty    \vas    common     in    the    British 


EMANCIPATION.  29 

Islands.  But  It  was  in  this  department  chiefly  that  the 
slaves  were  exposed  to  excessive  toil.  It  was  tc  be 
expected,  then,  that,  when  left  free,  they  would  prefer 
other  modes  of  industry.  Accordingly,  whilst  the  sugar 
is  diminished,  the  ordinary  articles  of  subsistence  have 
increased.  Some  of  the  slaves  have  become  small  farm- 
ers ;  and  many  more,  who  hire  themselves  as  laborers, 
cultivate  small  patches  of  land  on  their  own  account. 
There  is  another  important  consideration.  Before  free- 
dom, the  women  formed  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the 
gangs  who  labored  on  the  sugar  crops.  These  are  now 
very  much,  if  not  wholly,  withdrawn.  Is  it  a  grief  to  a 
man,  who  has  the  spirit  of  a  man,  that  woman's  bur- 
dens are  made  lighter  ?  Other  causes  of  the  diminution 
of  the  sugar  crop  may  be  found  in  Mr.  Gurney's  book  ; 
but  these  are  enough  to  show  us  that  this  effect  is  due 
in  part  to  the  good  working  of  emancipation,  to  a  re- 
lief of  the  male  and  female  slave,  in  which  we  ought  to 
rejoice. 

Before  emancipation,  I  expected  that  the  immediate 
result  of  the  measure  w^ould  be  more  or  less  idleness, 
and  consequently  a  diminution  of  produce.  How  natu- 
ral was  it  to  anticipate  that  men  who  had  worked 
under  the  lash,  and  had  looked  on  exemption  from  toil 
as  the  happiness  of  paradise,  should  surrender  them- 
selves more  or  less  to  sloth,  on  becoming  their  ov/n 
masters  !  It  Is  the  curse  of  a  bad  system,  to  unfit  men, 
at  first,  for  a  better.  That  the  paralyzing  effect  of  slav- 
ery should  continue  after  Its  extinction,  that  the  slave 
should,  at  the  first,  produce  Je^s  than  before,  this,  surely, 
is  no  matter  of  wonder.  The  wonder  is,  and  It  is  a 
great  one,  that  the  slaves  in  the  West  Indies  have,  in 
their  new  condition,  been  so  greatly  influenced  by  the 
3* 


30  EMANCIPATION. 

motives  of  freemen  ;  that  the  spirit  of  industry  has  so 
fir  survived  the  system  of  compulsion  under  which 
they  had  been  trained  ;  that  ideas  of  a  better  mode  of 
living  have  taken  so  strong  a  hold  on  their  minds  ;  that 
so  many  refined  tastes  and  wants  have  been  so  soon 
developed.  Here  is  the  wonder  ;  and  all  this  shows, 
what  we  have  often  heard,  that  the  negro  is  more  sus- 
ceptible of  civilization  from  abroad  than  any  other  race 
of  men.  That  some,  perhaps  many,  of  the  slaves  have 
worked  too  little  is  not  to  be  denied,  nor  can  we  blame 
them  much  for  it.  All  of  us,  I  suspect,  under  like  cir- 
cumstances, would  turn  our  first  freedom  into  a  holyday. 
Besides,  w^hen  we  think  that  they  have  been  sweating 
and  bleeding  to  nourish  in  all  manner  of  luxury  a  few 
indolent  proprietors,  they  do  not  seem  very  inexcusable 
for  a  short  emulation  of  their  superiors.  The  negro 
sleeping  all  day  under  the  shade  of  the  palm-tree  ought 
not  to  offend  our  moral  sense  much  more  than  the 
''owner"  stretched  on  his  ottoman  or  sofa.  What 
ought  to  astonish  us  is  the  limitation,  not  the  existence, 
of  the  evil. 

It  is  to  be  desired  that  those  among  us  who  groan 
over  emancipation  because  the  staples  of  the  Islands 
are  diminished  should  be  made  to  wear  for  a  few  months 
the  yoke  of  slavery,  so  as  to  judge  experimentally 
whether  freedom  is  worth  or  not  a  few  hogsheads  of 
sugar.  If,  knowing  what  this  yoke  is,  they  are  willing 
that  others  should  bear  it,  they  deserve  themselves 
above  all  others  to  be  crushed  by  it.  Slavery  is  the 
greatest  of  wrongs,  the  most  intolerable  of  all  the  forms 
of  oppression.  We  of  this  country  thought  that  to  be 
robbed  of  political  hberty  was  an  injury  not  to  be  en- 
dured ;  and,  as  a  people,  were  ready  to  shed  our  blood 


EMANCIPATION.  31 

like  water  to  avert  it.  But  political  liberty  is  of  no 
worth  compared  with  personal ;  and  slavery  robs  men 
of  the  latter.  Under  the  despotism  of  modern  Europe, 
the  people,  though  deprived  of  political  freedom,  enjoy 
codes  of  laws  constructed  with  great  care,  the  fruits  of 
the  wisdom  of  ages,  which  recognize  the  sacredness  of 
the  rights  of  person  and  property,  and  under  which 
those  rights  are  essentially  secure.  A  subject  of  these 
despotisms  may  still  be  a  man,  may  better  his  condition, 
may  enrich  his  intellect,  may  fill  the  earth  with  his  fame. 
He  enjoys  essentially  personal  freedom,  and  through 
this  accomplishes  the  great  ends  of  his  being.  To  be 
stripped  of  this  blessing,  to  be  owned  by  a  fellow-crea- 
ture, to. hold  our  limbs  and  faculties  as  another's  proper- 
ty, to  be  subject  every  moment  to  another's  will,  to 
stand  in  awe  of  another's  lash,  to  have  our  whole  ener- 
gies chained  to  never  varying  tasks  for  another's  luxury, 
to  hold  wife  and  children  at  another's  pleasure,  —  what 
wrong  can  be  compared  with  this  ?  This  is  such  an  in- 
sult on  human  nature,  such  an  impiety  towards  the  com- 
mon Father,  that  the  whole  earth  should  send  up  one 
cry  of  reprobation  against  it  ;  and  yet  we  are  told,  this 
outrage  must  continue,  lest  the  market  of  tlie  civilized 
world  should  be  deprived  of  some  hogsheads  of  sugar. 

It  is  hard  to  weigh  human  rights  against  each  other  ; 
they  are  all  sacred  and  invaluable.  But  there  is  no  one 
which  nature,  instinct,  makes  so  dear  to  us  as  the  right 
of  action,  of  free  motion  ;  the  right  of  exerting,  and 
by  exertion  enlarging,  our  faculties  of  body  and  mind  ; 
the  right  of  forming  plans,  of  directing  our  powers  ac- 
cording to  our  convictions  of  interest  and  duty  ;  the 
right  of  putting  forth  our  energies  from  a  spring  in  our 
own  breasts.      Self-motion,  this  is  what  our  nature  hun- 


e:\iancipation. 


gers  and  thirsts  for  as  its  true  element  and  life.  In  truth, 
ever}'  thing  that  lives,  the  bird,  the  insect,  craves  and 
delights  in  freedom  of  action  ;  and  much  more  must  this 
be  the  instinct  of  a  rational,  moral  creature  of  God,  who 
can  attain  by  such  freedom  alone  to  the  proper  strength 
and  enjoyment  of  his  nature.  The  rights  of  property 
or  reputation  are  poor  compared  with  this.  Of  what 
worth  would  be  the  products  of  the  universe  to  a  man 
forbidden  to  use  his  limbs,  or  shut  up  in  a  prison  ?  To 
be  deprived  of  that  freedom  of  action  which  consists 
with  others'  freedom  ;  to  be  forbidden  to  exert  our  fac- 
ulties for  our  own  good  ;  to  be  cut  off  from  enterprise  ; 
to  have  a  narrow  circle  drawm  round  us,  and  to  be  kept 
wnthin  it  by  a  spy  and  a  lash  ;  to  meet  an  iron  barrier  in 
another's  selfish  will,  let  impulse  or  desire  turn  where  it 
may  ;  to  be  systematically  denied  the  means  of  culti- 
vating the  powers  which  distinguish  us  from  the  brute  ; 
—  this  is  to  be  wounded  not  only  in  the  dearest  earthly 
interests,  but  in  the  very  life  of  the  soul.  Our  humani- 
ty pines  and  dies,  rather  than  lives,  in  this  unnatural  re- 
straint. Now  it  is  the  very  essence  of  slavery  to  pros- 
trate this  right  of  action,  of  self-motion,  not  indirectly 
or  uncertainly,  but  immediately  and  without  disguise  ; 
and  is  this  right  to  be  weighed  in  the  scales  against  su- 
gar and  coffee  ;  and  are  eight  hundred  thousand  human 
beings  to  be  robbed  of  it  to  increase  the  luxuries  of  the 
world  ? 

What  matters  it,  that  the  staples  of  the  West  Indies 
are  diminished  ?  Do  the  people  there  starve  ?  Are 
they  driven  by  w^ant  to  robbery  ?  Has  the  negro  pass- 
ed from  the  hands  of  the  overseer  into  those  of  the 
hangman  ?  We  learn  from  Mr.  Gurney  that  the  proph- 
ecies of  ruin  to  the  West    Indies  are  fulfilled    chieflv  in 


EMANCIPATION.  33 

regard  to  the  prisons.      These  are  in  some  places  falling 
to   decay,  and   everywhere   have   fewer  inmates.     And 
what    makes    this    result    more   striking    is,    that,   since 
emancipation,    many   offences,    formerly  punished   sum- 
marily by  the  master  on  the    plantation,  now  fall  under 
the  cognizance  of  the  magistrate,    and   are,   of  course, 
punishable  by  imprisonment.      Do  the  freed  slaves  want 
clothing  ?      Do   rags    form    the    standard    of  emancipa- 
tion ?     We   hear  not  only   of  decent   apparel,   but   are 
told    ihat  negro  vanity,  hardly  surpassed    by  that  of  the 
white   dandy,  suffers  nothing  for  want  of  decoration   or 
fashionable  attire.      There  is  not  a  sign,  that  the  people 
fare   the  worse  for   freedom.     Enough   is   produced    to 
give  subsistence  to  an  improved  and  cheerful  population; 
and  what  more  can  we  desire  ?     In   our  sympathy  with 
the    rich    proprietor    shall    we    complain    of    a    change 
which  has  secured  to  every  man  his  rights,  and  to  thou- 
sands, once  trodden  under  foot,  the  comforts  of  life  and 
the    means   of  intellectual    and  moral   prpgress  ?     Is    it 
nothing,  that  the  old,  unfurnished  hut  of  the  slave   is  in 
many  spots  giving  place  to  the  comfortable  cottage  ?    Is 
it  nothing,  that  in  these  cottages   marriage  is  an  indisso- 
luble tie  ?  that  the  mother  presses  her  child  to  her  heart 
as  indeed  her  own  ?     Is   it   nothing,  that  churches  are 
springing  up,  not  from  the  donations   of  the  opulent,  but 
from  the  hard  earnings  of  the  religious  poor  ?     What  if 
a  few  owners  of  sugar  estates  export  less  than  formerly.? 
Are  the  many  always  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  few  ?    Sup- 
pose the   luxuries   of  the    splendid   mansion    to    be   re- 
trenched.     Is  it  no  compensation,  that  the  comforts    of 
the  laborer's  hut  are  increased  ?     Emancipation  was  re- 
sisted on  the  ground,  that  the  slave,  if  restored   to    his 
rie;hts,  would  fall  into   idleness  and  vagrancy,  and  even 


34  EMANCIPATION.  * 

relapse  Into  barbarism.  But  the  emancipated  negro 
discovers  no  indifference  to  the  comforts  of  civilized 
life.  He  has  wants  various  enough  to  keep  him  in  ac- 
tion. His  standard  of  living  has  risen.  He  desires  a 
better  lodging,  dress,  and  food.  He  has  begun,  too,  to 
thirst  for  accumulation.  As  Mr.  Gurney  says,  "  He 
understands  his  interest  as  well  as  a  Yankee."  He  is 
more  likely  to  fall  into  the  civilized  man's  cupidity  than 
into  the  sloth  and  filth  of  a  savage.  Is  it  an  oflset  for 
all  these  benefits,  that  the  custom-house  reports  a  dimi- 
nution of  the  staples  of  slavery  ^ 

What  a  country  most  needs  is,  not  an  increase  of  its 
exports,  but  the  well-being  of  all  classes  of  its  popula- 
tion, and  especially  of  the  most  numerous  class  ;  and 
these  things  are  not  one  and  the  same.  It  is  a  striking 
fact,  that,  while  the  exports  of  the  emancipated  islands 
have  decreased,  the  imports  are  greater  than  befoie.  In 
Jamaica,  during  slavery,  the  industry  of  the  laborers 
was  given  chiefly  to  a  staple  which  was  sent  to  absen- 
tee proprietors,  who  expended  the  proceeds  very  much 
in  a  luxurious  life  in  England.  At  present  not  a  little 
of  this  industry  is  employed  on  articles  of  subsistence 
and  comfort  for  the  working  class  and  their  families  ; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  such  an  amount  of  labor  is  sold 
by  this  class  to  the  planter,  and  so  fast  are  they  acquir- 
ing a  taste  for  better  modes  of  living,  that  they  need  and 
can  pay  for  great  imports  from  the  mother  country. 
Surely,  when  we  see  the  fruits  of  industry  diffusing  them- 
selves more  and  more  through  the  mass  of  a  communi- 
ty, finding  their  way  to  the  very  hovel,  and  raising  the 
multitude  of  men  to  new  civilization  and  self-respect, 
we  cannot  grieve  much,  even  though  it  should  appear, 
that,  on  the  whole,  the  amount  of  exports  or  even  of  pro- 


EMANCIPATION.  35 

ducts  is  decreased.  It  is  not  the  quantity,  but  the  dis- 
tribution, the  use,  of  products,  which  determines  the 
prosperity  of  a  state.  For  example,  were  the  grain 
which  is  now  grown  among  us  for  distillation  annually 
destroyed  by  fire,  or  were  every  ship  freighted  with 
distilled  liquors  to  sink  on  approaching  our  shores,  so 
that  the  crew  might  be  saved,  how  immensely  would  the 
happiness,  honor,  and  real  strength  of  the  country  be 
increased  by  the  loss,  even  were  this  not  to  be  replaced, 
as  it  soon  would  be,  by  the  springing  up  of  a  new,  vir- 
tuous industry,  now  excluded  by  intemperance  !  So, 
were  the  labor  and  capital  now  spent  on  the  importation 
of  pernicious  luxuries  to  be  employed  in  the  intellec- 
tual, moral,  and  religious  culture  of  the  whole  people, 
how  immense  would  be  the  gain  in  every  respect, 
though  for  a  short  time  material  products  were  diminish- 
ed !  A  better  age  will  look  back  with  wonder  and  scorn 
on  the  misdirected  industry  of  the  present  times.  The 
only  sure  sign  of  public  prosperity  is,  that  the  mass  of 
the  people  are  steadily  multiplying  the  comforts  of  hfe 
and  the  means  of  improvement  ;  and  where  this  takes 
place  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves  about  exports  or 
products. 

I  am  not  very  anxious  to  repel  the  charge  against 
emancipation  of  diminishing  the  industry  of  the  Islands, 
though  it  has  been  much  exaggerated.  Allow  that  the 
freed  slaves  work  less.  Has  man  nothing  to  do  but 
work  ?  Are  not  too  many  here  overworked  ?  If  a 
people  can  live  with  comfort  on  less  toil,  are  they  not 
to  be  envied  rather  than  condemned  ?  What  a  happi- 
ness would  it  be,  if  we  here,  by  a  new  wisdom,  a  new 
temperance,  and  a  new  spirit  of  brotherly  love,  could 
cease  to  be  the  care-worn  drudges  which  so  many  in  all 


36  EMANCIPATION. 

classes  are,  and  could  give  a  greater  portion  of  life  to 
thought,  to  refined  social  intercourse,  to  the  enjoyment 
of  the  beauty  which  God  spreads  over  the  universe,  to 
works  of  genius  and  art,  to  communion  with  our  Crea- 
tor !  Labor  connected  with  and  aiding  such  a  life 
would  be  noble.  How  much  of  it  is  thrown  away  on 
poor,  superficial,  degrading  gratifications  ! 

We  hear  the  condition  of  Hayti  deplored  because 
the  people  are  so  idle  and  produce  so  little  for  expor- 
tation. Many  look  back  to  the  period  when  a  few 
planters  drove  thousands  of  slaves  to  the  cane-field  and 
sugar-mill  in  order  to  enrich  themselves  and  to  secure 
to  their  families  the  luxurious  ease  so  coveted  in  tropi- 
cal climes,  and  they  sigh  over  the  change  which  has 
taken  place.  I  look  on  the  change  with  very  different 
feelings.  The  negroes  in  that  luxuriant  island  have  in- 
creased to  above  a  million.  By  slight  toil  they  obtain 
the  comforts  of  life.  Their  homes  are  sacred.  Their 
little  property  in  a  good  degree  secure.  They  live  to- 
gether peaceably.  So  little  inclined  are  they  to  vio- 
lence that  the  large  amounts  of  specie  paid  by  the  gov- 
ernment to  France,  as  the  price  of  independence,  have 
been  transported  through  the  country  on  horseback  with 
comparatively  no  defence,  and  with  a  safety  which  no 
one  would  be  mad  enough  to  expect  under  such  cir- 
cumstances in  what  are  called  civilized  lands.  It  is 
true,  their  enjoyments  are  animal  in  a  great  degree. 
They  live  much  like  neglected  children,  making  little  or 
no  progress,  making  life  one  long  day  of  unprofitable 
ease.  T  should  rejoice  to  raise  them  from  children  in- 
to men.  But  when  I  contrast  this  tranquil,  unoffending 
life  with  the  horrors  of  a  slave  plantation  it  seems  to 
me  a  paradise.     What  matters  it,  that  they  send  next  to 


EMANCIPATION.  37 

no  coffee  or  sugar  to  Europe  ?  How  much  better,  that 
they  should  stretch  themselves  in  the  heat  of  the  day 
under  their  gracefully  waving  groves,  than  sweat  and 
bleed  under  an  overseer  for  others'  selfish  ease  !  Hayti 
has  one  curse,  and  that  is,  not  freedom,  but  tyranny. 
Her  president  for  life  is  a  despot,  under  a  less  ominous 
name.  Her  government,  indifferent  or  hostile  to  the 
improvement  of  the  people,  is  sustained  by  a  standing 
army,  which  undoubtedly  is  an  instrument  of  oppression. 
But  in  so  simple  a  form  of  society  despotism  is  not 
that  organized  robbery  which  has  flourished  in  the  civil- 
ized world.  Undoubtedly  in  this  rude  state  of  things 
the  laws  are  often  unwise,  partial,  and  ill  administered. 
I  have  no  taste  for  this  childish  condition  of  society. 
Still,  1  turn  with  pleasure  from  slavery  to  the  thought  of 
a  million  of  fellow-beings,  little  instructed  indeed,  but 
enjoying  ease  and  comfort  under  that  beautiful  sky  and 
on  the  bosom  of  that  exhaustless  soil.  Tn  one  respect 
Hayti  is  infinitely  advantaged  by  her  change  of  condi- 
tion. Under  slavery  her  colored  population,  that  is, 
the  mass  of  her  inhabitants,  had  no  chance  of  rising, 
could  make  no  progress  in  intelligence  and  in  the  arts 
and  refinements  of  life.  They  were  doomed  to  per- 
petual degradation.  Under  freedom  their  improvement 
is  possible.  They  are  placed  within  the  reach  of  melio- 
rating influences.  Their  intercourse  with  other  nations 
and  the  opportunities  afforded  to  many  among  them  of 
bettering  their  condition  furnish  various  means  and  in- 
citements to  progress.  If  the  Cathohc  Church,  which  is 
rendering  at  this  moment  immense  aid  to  civilization  and 
pure  morals  in  Ireland,  were  to  enter  in  earnest  on  the 
work  of  enlightening  and  regenerating  Hayti,  or  if  (what 
I   should  greatly  prefer)   any  other   church  could  have 

VOL.    VI.  4 


38  EMANCIPATION. 

free  access  to  the  people,  this  island  might  in  a  short 
time  become  an  important  accession  to  the  Christian 
and  civilized  world,  and  the  dark  cloud  which  hangs 
over  the  Grst  years  of  her  freedom  would  vanish  before 
the  brightness  of  her  later  history. 

My  maxim  is,  "  Any  thing  but  slavery  !  Poverty 
sooner  than  slavery  !  "  Suppose  that  we  of  this  good 
city  of  Boston  were  summoned  to  choose  between  liv- 
ing on  bread  and  water  and  such  a  state  of  things  as 
existed  in  the  West  Indies.  Suppose  that  the  present 
wealth  of  our  metropolis  could  be  continued  only  on  the 
condition,  that  five  thousand  out  of  our  eighty  thousand 
inhabitants  should  live  as  princes,  and  the  rest  of  us  be 
reduced  to  slavery  to  sustain  the  luxury  of  our  masters. 
Should  we  not  all  cry  out,  Give  us  the  bread  and  wa- 
ter ?  Would  we  not  rather  see  our  fair  city  levelled  to 
the  earth,  and  choose  to  work  out  slowly  for  ourselves 
and  our  children  a  better  lot,  than  stoop  our  necks  to 
the  yoke  ?  So  we  all  feel,  when  the  case  is  brought 
home  to  ourselves.  What  should  we  say  to  the  man 
who  should  strive  to  terrify  us,  by  prophecies  of  dimin- 
ished products  and  exports,  into  the  substitution  of  bond- 
age for  the  character  of  freemen  ? 

In  the  preceding  remarks  I  have  insisted  that  eman- 
cipation is  not  to  be  treated  as  a  question  of  profit  and 
loss,  that  its  merits  are  not  to  be  settled  by  its  influence 
on  the  master's  gains.  Mr.  Gurney,  however,  maintains 
that  the  master  has  nothing  to  fear,  that  real  estate  has 
risen,  that  free  labor  costs  less  than  that  of  the  slave. 
All  this  is  good  news,  and  should  be  spread  through  the 
land  ;  for  men  are  especially  inclined  to  be  just  when 
they  can  serve  themselves  by  justice.  But  emanci- 
pation rests  on  higher  ground  than  the  master's  accumu- 


EMANCIPATION.  S9 

lation,  even  on  the  rights  and  essential  interests  of  the 
slave.  And  let  these  be  held  sacred,  though  the  luxury 
of  the  master  be  retrenched. 

2.  I  have  now  finished  my  remarks  on  a  topic  which 
was  always  present  to  the  mind  of  our  author,  —  the 
alleged  decrease  of  industry  and  exports  since  emanci- 
pation. The  next  topic  to  which  I  shall  turn  is,  his 
notice  of  slavery  in  Cuba.  He  only  touched  at  this  is- 
land, but  evidently  received  the  same  sad  impression 
which  we  receive  from  those  who  have  had  longer  time 
for  observation.     He  says  : 

"  Of  one  feature  in  the  slave-trade  and  slavery  of  Cu- 
ba I  had  no  knowledge  until  I  was  on  the  spot.  The  im- 
portation consists  almost  entirely  of  men,  and  we  were 
informed  that  on  many  of  the  estates  not  a  single  female 
is  to  be  found.  Natural  increase  is  disregarded.  The 
.Cubans  import  the  stronger  animals  like  bullocks,  work 
them  up,  and  then  seek  a  fresh  supply.  This,  surely,  is  a 
system  of  most  unnatural  barbarity."  —  p.  160. 

This  barbarity  is  believed  to  be  unparalleled.  The 
young  African,  torn  from  home  and  his  native  shore,  is 
brought  to  a  plantation  where  he  is  never  to  know  a 
home.  All  the  relations  of  domestic  life  are  systemat- 
ically denied  him.  Woman's  countenance  he  is  not  to 
look  upon.  The  child's  voice  he  is  no  more  to  hear. 
His  owner  finds  it  more  gainful  to  import  than  to  breed 
slaves  ;  and,  still  more,  has  made  the  sad  discovery,  that 
it  is  cheaper  to  "  work  up  "  the  servile  laborer  in  his 
youth,  and  to  replace  him  by  a  new  victim,  than  to  let 
him  grow  old  in  moderate  toil.  T  have  been  told  by 
some  of  the  most  recent  travellers  in  Cuba,  who  gave 
particular  attention  to  the   subject,*  that. in   the  sugar- 

•  My  accounts   from  Cuba  have  been   received  from   Dr.   Madden,  and 
David  TurnbuU,  Esq.;  the  former,  one  of  the  British  commissioners  resi- 


40  EMANCIPATION. 

making  season  the  slaves  are  generally  allowed  but  four 
out  of  the  twenty-four  hours  for  sleep.  From  these,  too, 
I  learned  that  a  gang  of  slaves  is  used  up  in  ten  years. 
Of  the  young  men  imported  from  Africa,  one  out  of  ten 
dies  yearly.  To  supply  this  enormous  waste  of  life, 
above  twenty-five  thousand  slaves  are  imported  annual- 
ly from  Africa,*  in  vessels  so  crowded  that  sometimes 
one  quarter,  sometimes  one  half,  of  the  wretched  crea- 
tures perish  in  agony  before  reaching  land.  It  is  to 
be  feared  that  Cuban  slavery,  traced  from  the  moment 
when  the  African  touches  the  deck  to  the  happier  mo- 
ment when  he  finds  his  grave  on  the  ocean  or  the  plant- 
ation, includes  an  amount  of  crime  and  misery  not  to 
be  paralleled  in  any  portion  of  the  globe,  civilized  or 
savage.  And  there  are  more  reasons  than  one  why  I 
would  bring  this  horrid  picture  before  the  minds  of  my 
countrymen.  We,  we,  do  much  to  sustain  this  sys- 
tem of  horror  and  blood.  The  Cuban  slave-trade  is 
carried  on  in  vessels  built  especially  for  this  use  in 
American  ports.  These  vessels  often  sail  under  the 
American  flag,  and  are  aided  by  American  merchant- 
men, and,  as  is  feared,  by  American  capital.  And  this 
IS  not  all.  The  sugar,  in  producing  which  so  many  of 
our  fellow-creatures  perish  miserably,  is  shipped  in  great 


dent  at  Havana  to  enforce  the  treaty  with  Spain  in  relation  to  the  slave- 
trade  ;  the  latter,  a  gentleman  who  visited  Cuba  chiefly,  if  not  solely,  to  in- 
quire into  slavery.  Mr.  TurnbuU's  account  of  Cuba,  in  his  "Travels  in 
the  West,"  deserves  to  be  read.  The  reports  of  such  men,  confirmed  in  a 
very  important  particular  by  Mr.  Gurney,  have  an  authority  which  obliges 
me  to  speak  as  I  have  done  of  the  slave-system  of  this  island.  If,  indeed, 
(what  is  most  unlikely,)  tliey  have  fallen  into  errors  on  the  subject,  these 
can  easily  be  exposed,  and  I  shall  rejoice  in  being  the  means  of  bringing 
out  the  truth. 

*  There  are  different  estimates  of  the  number,  some  making  it  much 
greater  than  the  text 


EMANCIPATION.  41 

quantities  to  this  country.  We  are  the  customers  who 
stimulate  by  our  demands  this  infernal  cruehy.  And, 
knowing  this,  shall  we  become  accessories  to  the  mur- 
der of  our  brethren  by  continuing  to  use  the  fruit  of 
the  hard-wrung  toil  which  destroys  them  ?  The  sugar 
of  Cuba  comes  to  us  drenched  with  human  blood.  So 
we  ought  to  see  it,  and  to  turn  from  it  with  loathing. 
The  guilt  which  produces  it  ought  to  be  put  dow'n  by 
the  spontaneous,  instinctive  horror  of  the  civilized  world. 

There  is  another  fact  worthy  attention.  It  is  said, 
that  most  of  the  plantations  in  Cuba  which  have  been 
recently  brought  under  cultivation  belong  to  Ameri- 
cans, that  the  number  of  American  slave-holders  is  in- 
creasing rapidly  on  the  island,  and  consequently  that  the 
importation  of  human  cargoes  from  Africa  finds  much 
of  its  encouragement  from  the  citizens  of  our  republic. 
It  is  not  easy  to  speak  in  measured  terms  of  this  enor- 
mity. For  men  born  and  brought  up  amidst  slavery 
many  apologies  may  be  made.  But  men  born  beyond 
the  sound  of  the  lash,  brought  up  where  human  rights 
are  held  sacred,  who,  in  face  of  all  the  light  thrown 
now  on  slavery,  can  still  deal  in  human  flesh,  can  be- 
come customers  of  the  "  felon  "  who  tears  the  African 
from  his  native  shore,  and  can  w^ith  open  eyes  inflict  this 
deepest  wrong  for  gain,  and  gain  alone,  —  such  "have 
no  cloak  for  their  sin."  Men  so  hard  of  heart,  so 
steeled  against  the  reproofs  of  conscience,  so  intent  on 
thriving  though  it  be  by  the  most  cruel  wrongs,  are  not 
to  be  touched  by  human  expostulation  and  rebuke.  But 
if  any  should  tremble  before  Almighty  justice,  ought  not 
they  9 

There  is  another  reason  for  dwelling  on  this  topic. 
It  teaches  us  the  little  reliance  to  be  placed  on  the  im- 
4* 


42  EMANCIPATION. 

pressions  respecting  slavery  brought  home  by  superficial 
observers.  We  have  seen  what  slavery  is  in  Cuba ; 
and  yet  men  of  high  character  from  this  country,  who 
have  visited  that  island,  have  returned  to  tell  us  of  the 
mildness  of  the  system.  Men  who  would  cut  off  their 
right  hand,  sooner  than  withdraw  the  sympathy  of  oth- 
ers from  human  suffering,  have  virtually  done  so,  by 
their  representation  of  the  kindly  working  of  slavery  on 
the  very  spot  where  it  exists  with  peculiar  horrors. 
They  have  visited  some  favored  plantation,  been  treated 
with  hospitality,  seen  no  tortures,  heard  no  shrieks,  and 
then  come  home  to  reprove  those  who  set  forth  indig- 
nantly the  wrongs  of  the  slave.  And  what  is  true  with 
regard  to  the  visiters  of  the  West  Indies  applies  to 
those  who  visit  our  Southern  States.  Having  witness- 
ed slavery  in  the  families  of  some  of  the  most  enlight- 
ened and  refined  inhabitants,  they  return  to  speak  of  it 
as  no  very  fearful  thing.  Had  they  inquired  about  the 
state  of  society  through  the  whole  country,  and  learned 
that  more  than  one  fourth  of  the  inhabitants  cannot  write 
their  own  names,  they  would  have  forborne  to  make  a 
few  selected  families  the  representatives  of  the  commun- 
ity, and  might  have  believed  in  the  possibility  of  some 
of  the  horrid  details  recorded  in  "  Slavery  as  it  is." 
For  myself,  I  do  not  think  it  worth  my  while  to  inquire 
into  the  merits  of  slavery  in  this  or  that  region.  It  is 
enough  for  me  to  know  that  one  human  being  holds  oth- 
er human  beings  as  his  property,  subject  to  his  arbitrary 
and  irresponsible  will,  and  compels  them  to  toil  for  his 
luxury  and  ease.  I  know  enough  of  men  to  know  what 
the  workings  of  such  a  system  on  a  large  scale  must  be; 
.  and  I  hold  my  understanding  insulted  when  men  talk  to 
me  of  its   humanity.      If  there   be  one    truth   of  history 


EMANCIPATION.  43 

taught  more  plainly  than  any  other,  it  is  the  tendency  of 
human  nature  to  abuse  power.  To  protect  ourselves 
against  power,  to  keep  this  in  perpetual  check,  by  di- 
viding it  among  many  hands,  by  hmiting  its  duration,  by 
defining  its  action  with  sharp  lines,  by  watching  it  jeal- 
ously, by  holding  it  responsible  for  abuses,  this  is  the 
grand  aim  and  benefit  of  the  social  institutions  which  are 
our  chief  boast.  Arbitrary,  unchecked  power  is  the 
evil  against  which  all  experience  cries  out  so  loudly  that 
apologies  for  it  may  be  dismissed  without  a  hearing. 
But  admit  the  plea  of  its  apologists.  Allow  slavery  to 
be  ever  so  humane.  Grant  that  the  man  who  owns  me 
is  ever  so  kind.  The  wrong  of  him  who  presumes  to 
talk  of  owning  me  is  too  unmeasured  to  be  softened  by 
kindness.  There  are  wrongs  which  can  be  redeemed 
by  no  kindness.  Because  a  man  treads  on  me  with 
velvet  foot,  must  I  be  content  to  grovel  in  the  earth  ? 
Because  he  gives  me  meat  as  well  as  bread,  whilst  he 
takes  my  child  and  sells  it  into  a  land  where  my  chained 
limbs  cannot  follow,  must  I  thank  him  for  his  kindness  ? 
I  do  not  envy  those  who  think  slavery  no  very  pitiable 
a  lot  provided  its  nakedness  be  covered  and  its  hunger 
regularly  appeased. 

It  is  worthy  of  consideration,  that  the  slave's  lot  does 
not  improve  with  the  advance  of  what  is  called  civiliza- 
Tion,  that  is,  of  trade  and  luxuries.  Slavery  is  such  a 
violation  of  nature,  that  it  is  an  exception  to  the  general 
law  of  progress.  In  rude  states  of  society,  when  men's 
wants  and  employments  are  few,  and  trade  and  other 
means  of  gain  hardly  exist,  the  slave  leads  a  compara- 
tively easy  life  ;  he  partakes  of  the  general  indolence. 
He  lives  in  the  family  much  as  a  member,  and  is  op- 
pressed  by  no   great   disparity  of  rank.      But  when   so- 


4  4  EMANCIPATION. 

ciety  advances,  and  wants  multiply,  and  the  lust  of  gain 
springs  up,  and  prices  increase,  the  slave's  lot  grows 
harder.  He  is  viewed  more  and  more  as  a  machine  to 
be  used  for  profit,  and  is  tasked  like  the  beast  of  bur- 
den. The  distance  between  him  and  his  master  in- 
creases, and  he  has  less  and  less  of  the  spirit  of  a  man. 
He  may  have  better  food  ;  but  it  is  that  he  may  work 
the  more.  He  may  be  whipped  less  passionately  or 
frequently  ;  but  it  is  because  the  never  varying  routine 
of  toil  and  the  more  skilful  discipline  which  civilization 
teaches  have  subdued  him  more  completely.  Thus  to 
the  slave  it  is  no  gain,  that  the  community  grow  richer 
and  more  luxurious.  He  has  an  interest  in  the  return 
of  society  to  barbarism,  for  in  this  case  he  would  come 
nearer  the  general  level.  He  would  escape  the  peculiar 
ignominy  and  accumulated  burdens  which  he  has  to  bear 
in  civilized  life. 

3.  I  pass  to  another  topic  suggested  by  Mr.  Gur- 
ney's  book.  What  is  it,  let  me  ask,  w^hich  has  freed 
the  West-India  slave,  and  is  now  raising  him  to  the 
dignity  of  a  man  ?  The  answer  is  most  cheering.  The 
great  emancipator  has  been  Christianity.  Policy,  in- 
terest, state-craft,  church-craft,  the  low  motives  which 
have  originated  other  revolutions,  have  not  worked 
here.  From  the  times  of  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce 
down  to  the  present  day,  the  friends  of  the  slave,  who 
have  pleaded  his  cause  and  broken  his  chains,  have 
been  Christian!-'  ,  and  it  is  from  Christ,  the  divine  phil- 
anthropist, from  the  inspiration  of  his  cross,  that  they 
have  gathered  faith,  hope,  and  love,  for  the  conflict. 
This  illustration  of  the  spirit  and  power  of  Christianity 
is  a  bright  addition  to  the  evidences  of  its  truth.     We 


EMANCIPATION.  45 

have  here  the  miracle  of  a  great  nation  rising  in  its 
strength,  not  for  conquest,  not  to  assert  its  own  rights, 
but  to  free  and  elevate  the  most  despised  and  injured 
race  on  earth ;  and  as  this  stands  alone  in  human  his- 
tory, so  it  recalls  to  us  those  wonderful  works  of  mercy 
and  power  by  which  the  divinity  of  our  religion  was  at 
first  confirmed. 

It  is  with  deep  sorrow  that  I  am  compelled  to  turn 
to  the  contrast  between  religion  in  England  and  religion 
in  America.  There  it  vindicates  the  cause  of  the  op- 
pressed. Here  it  rivets  the  chain,  and  hardens  the 
heart  of  the  oppressor.  At  the  South  what  is  the 
Christian  ministry  doing  for  the  slave  ?  Teaching  the 
rightfulness  of  his  yoke,  joining  in  the  cry  against  the 
men  who  plead  for  his  freedom,  giving  the  sanction  of 
God's  name  to  the  greatest  offence  against  his  children. 
This  is  the  saddest  view  presented  by  the  conflict  with 
slavery.  The  very  men  whose  office  it  is  to  plead 
against  all  wrong,  to  enforce  the  obligation  of  impartial, 
inflexible  justice,  to  breathe  the  spirit  of  universal 
brotherly  love,  to  resist  at  all  hazards  the  spirit  and  evil 
customs  of  the  world,  to  live  and  to  die  under  the  ban- 
ner of  Christian  truth,  have  enlisted  under  the  standard 
of  slavery.  Had  they  merely  declined  to  bring  the 
subject  into  the  church,  on  the  ground  of  the  presence 
of  the  slave,  they  would  have  been  justified.  Had  they 
declined  to  discuss  it  through  the  press  and  in  conversa- 
tion, on  the  ground,  that  the  public  mind  was  too  furious 
to  bear  the  truth,  they  would  have  been  approved  by 
multitudes  ;  though  it  is  wisest  for  the  minister  to  resign 
his  ofiice,  when  it  can  be  exercised  only  under  menace 
and  unrighteous  restraint,  and  to  go  where  with  un- 
sealed lips  he  may  teach  and  enforce  human  duty  in  its 


46  EMANCIPATION. 

full  extent.  But  the  ministers  at  the  South  have  not 
been  content  with  silence.  The  majority  of  them  are 
understood  to  have  given  their  support  to  slavery,  to 
have  thrown  their  weight  into  the  scale  of  the  master. 
That,  in  so  doing,  they  have  behed  their  clear  convic- 
tions, that  they  have  preached  known  falsehood,  we  do 
not  say.  Few  ministers  of  Christ,  we  trust,  can  teach 
what  their  deliberate  judgments  condemn.  But,  in  cases 
like  the  present,  how  common  is  it  for  the  judgment  to 
receive  a  shape  and  hue  from  self-interest,  from  private 
affection,  from  the  tyranny  of  opinion,  and  the  passions 
of  the  multitude  !  Few  ministers,  we  trust,  can  sin 
against  clear,  steady  light.  But  how  common  is  it  for 
the  mind  to  waver  and  to  be  obscured  in  regard  to 
scorned  and  persecuted  truth  !  When  we  look  beyond 
the  bounds  of  slavery,  we  find  the  civilized  and  Chris- 
tian world,  with  few  exceptions,  reprobating  slavery,  as 
at  war  with  the  precepts  and  spirit  of  Christ.  But  at 
the  South  his  ministers  sustain  It,  as  consistent  with 
justice,  equity,  and  disinterested  love.  Can  we  help 
saying,  that  the  loud,  menacing,  popular  voice  has 
proved  too  strong  for  the  servants  of  Christ  ? 

We  hoped  better  things  than  this,  because  the  preva- 
lent sects  at  the  South  are  the  Methodists  and  Baptists, 
and  these  were  expected  to  be  less  tainted  by  a  world- 
ly spirit  than  other  denominations  in  which  luxury  and 
fashion  bear  greater  sway.  But  the  Methodists,  forgetful 
of  their  great  founder,  who  cried  aloud  against  slavery 
and  spared  not  ;  and  the  Baptists,  forgetful  of  the  sainted 
name  of  Roger  Williams,  whose  love  of  the  despised 
Indian,  and  whose  martyr  spirit  should  have  taught 
them  fearless  sympathy  with  the  negro,  have  been  found 
in   the   ranks   of  the   foes   of  freedom.     Indeed,   their 


EMANCIPATION.  47 

allegiance  to  slavery  seems  to  know  no  bounds.  A 
Baptist  association  at  the  South  decreed,  that  a  slave, 
sold  at  a  distance  from  his  wife,  might  marry  again  hi 
obedience  to  his  master  ;  and  that  he  would  even  do 
wrong  to  disobey  in  this  particular.  Thus  one  of  the 
plainest  precepts  of  Christianity  has  been  set  at  nought. 
Thus  the  poor  slave  is  taught  to  renounce  his  wife, 
however  dear,  to  rupture  the  most  sacred  social  tie, 
that,  like  the  other  animals,  he  may  keep  up  the  stock 
of  the  estate.  The  General  Methodist  Conference, 
during  this  very  year,  have  decreed,  that  the  testimony 
of  a  colored  member  of  their  churches  should  not  be  re- 
ceived against  a  white  member  who  may  be  on  trial  be- 
fore an  ecclesiastical  tribunal.  Thus,  in  church  affairs, 
a  multitude  of  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  have  been 
received  into  Christian  communion  on  the  ground  of 
their  spiritual  regeneration,  who  belong,  as  is  believed, 
to  the  church  on  earth  and  in  heaven,  are  put  down  by 
their  brethren  as  incapable  of  recognizing  the  obligation 
of  truth,  of  performing  the  most  common  duty  of  mo- 
rality, and  are  denied  a  privilege  conceded,  in  worldly 
affairs,  to  the  most  depraved.  Thus  the  religion  of  the 
South  heaps  insult  and  injury  on  the  slave. 

And  what  have  the  Christians  of  the  North  done  ^ 
We  rejoice  to  say,  that  from  these  have  gone  forth  not 
a  few  testimonies  against  slavery.  Not  a  few  ministers, 
in  associations,  conventions,  presbyteries,  or  conferen- 
ces, have  declared  the  inconsistency  of  the  system  with 
the  principles  of  Christianity  and  with  the  law  of  love. 
Still,  the  churches  and  congregations  of  the  Free  States 
have,  in  the  main,  looked  coldly  on  the  subject,  and  dis- 
couraged, too  effectually,  the  free  expression  of  thought 
and   feeling  in   regard   to    it   by   the   religious    teacher. 


48  EMANCIPATrON. 

Under  that  legislation  of  public  opinion  which,  without 
courts  or  offices,  sways  more  despotically  than  Czars 
or  Sultans,  the  pulpit  and  the  press  have,  in  no  small 
degree,  been  reduced  to  silence  as  to  slavery,  especially 
in  cities,  the  chief  seats  of  this  invisible  power.  Some 
fervent  spirits  among  us,  seeing  religion,  in  this  and 
other  cases,  so  ready  to  bend  to  worldly  opinion,  have 
been  filled  with  indignation.  They  have  spoken  of 
Christianity  as  having  no  life  here,  as  a  beautiful 
corpse,  laid  out  in  much  state,  worshipped  with  costly 
homage,  but  worshipped  very  much  as  were  the  proph- 
ets whose  tombs  were  so  ostentatiously  garnished  in  the 
times  of  the  Saviour.  But  this  is  unjust.  Christianity 
lives  and  acts  among  us.  It  imposes  many  salutary  re- 
straints. It  inspires  many  good  deeds.  There  are  not 
a  (ew  in  w^hom  it  puts  forth  a  power  worthy  of  its  better 
days,  and  the  number  of  such  is  growing.  Let  us  not 
be  ungrateful  for  what  this  religion  is  doing,  nor  shut 
our  ears  against  the  prophecies  which  the  present  gives 
of  its  future  triumphs.  Still,  as  a  general  rule,  the 
Christianity  of  this  day  falls  fearfully  short  of  the 
Christianity  of  the  immediate  followers  of  our  Lord. 
Then  the  meaning  of  a  Christian  was,  that  he  took  the 
cross  and  followed  Christ,  that  he  counted  not  his  life 
dear  to  him  in  the  service  of  God  and  man,  that  he  trod 
the  world  under  his  feet.  Now  we  ask  leave  of  the 
world  how  far  we  shall  follow  Christ.  What  wrong  or 
abuse  is  there,  which  the  bulk  of  the  people  may  think 
essential  to  their  prosperity  and  may  defend  with  outcry 
and  menace,  before  which  the  Christianity  of  this  age 
will  not  bow  .''  We  need  a  new  John,  who,  with  the 
untamed  and  solemn  energy  of  the  wilderness,  shall  cry 
out  among  us,   Repent  !     We  need  that  the  Crucified 


EMANCIPATION.  49 

should  speak  to  us  with  a  more  startling  voice,  "  He 
that  forsaketh  not  all  things  and  followeth  me  cannot  be 
my  disciple."  We  need  that  the  all-sacrificing,  all- 
sympathizing  spirit  of  Christianity  should  cease  to  bow 
to  the  spirit  of  the  world.  We  need,  that,  under  a  deep 
sense  of  want  and  woe,  the  church  should  cry  out,  "  Thy 
kingdom  come  !  "  and  with  holy  importunity  should  bring 
down  new  strength,  and  life,  and  love  from  Heaven. 

4.  I  pass  to  another  topic  suggested  by  Mr.  Gurney's 
book.  According  to  this  and  all  the  books  written  on 
the  subject.  Emancipation  has  borne  a  singular  testimo- 
ny to  the  noble  elements  of  the  negro  character.  It 
may  be  doubted  whether  any  other  race  would  have 
borne  this  trial  as  well  as  they.  Before  the  day  of  free- 
dom came,  the  West  Indies  and  this  country  foreboded 
fearful  consequences  from  the  sudden  transition  of  such 
a  multitude  from  bondage  to  liberty.  Revenge,  mas- 
sacre, unbridled  lust,  were  to  usher  in  the  grand  festival 
of  Emancipation,  which  was  to  end  in  the  breaking  out 
of  a  new  Pandemonium  on  earth.  Instead  of  this,  the 
holy  day  of  hberty  was  welcomed  by  shouts  and  tears 
of  gratitude.  The  liberated  negroes  did  not  hasten,  as 
Saxon  serfs  in  like  circumstances  might  have  done,  to 
haunts  of  intoxication,  but  to  the  house  of  God.  Their 
rude  churches  were  thronged.  Their  joy  found  utter- 
ance in  prayers  and  hymns.  History  contains  no  record 
more  touching  than  the  account  of  the  religious,  tender 
thankfulness  which  this  vast  boon  awakened  in  the  negro 
breast.*  And  what  followed  ?  Was  this  beautiful  emo- 
tion an  evanescent  transport,  soon  to  give  way  to  feroci- 

*  See  note  at  the  end. 
VOL.    VI.  5 


50  EMANCIPATION. 

ty  and  vengeance  ?  It  was  natural  for  masters  who  had 
inflicted  causeless  stripes,  and  filled  the  cup  of  the 
slaves  with  bitterness,  to  fear  their  rage  after  liberation. 
But  the  overwhelming  joy  of  freedom  having  subsided, 
they  returned  to  labor.  Not  even  a  blow  was  struck  in 
the  excitement  of  that  vast  change.  No  violation  of 
the  peace  required  the  interposition  of  the  magistrate. 
The  new  relation  was  assumed  easily,  quietly,  without 
an  act  of  violence.  And  since  that  time,  in  the  short 
space  of  two  years,  how  much  have  they  accomplished! 
Beautiful  villages  have  grown  up.  Little  freeholds  have 
been  purchased.  The  marriage  tie  has  become  sacred. 
The  child  is  educated.  Crime  has  diminished.  There 
are  islands  where  a  greater  proportion  of  the  young  are 
trained  in  schools  than  among  the  whites  of  the  slave 
States.  I  ask,  whether  any  other  people  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  would  have  received  and  used  the  infinite 
blessing  of  liberty  so  well. 

The  history  of  West-Indian  emancipation  teaches  us 
that  we  are  holding  in  bondage  one  of  the  best  races  of 
the  human  family.  The  negro  is  among  the  mildest, 
gendest  of  men.  He  is  singularly  susceptible  of  im- 
provement from  abroad.  His  children,  it  is  said,  re- 
ceive more  rapidly  than  ours  the  elements  of  knowl- 
edge. How  far  he  can  originate  improvements  time 
only  can  teach.  His  nature  is  affectionate,  easily 
touched  ;  and  hence  he  is  more  open  to  religious  im- 
pression than  the  white  man.  The  European  race 
have  manifested  more  courage,  enterprise,  invention  ; 
but  in  the  dispositions  which  Christianity  particularly 
honors  how  inferior  are  they  to  the  African  !  When  I 
cast  my  eyes  over  our  Southern  region,  the  land  of 
bowie-knives,    lynch-law,    and    duels,    of    ''  chivalry," 


EMANCIPATION.  51 

*'  honor,"  and  revenge  ;  and  when  I  consider  that 
Christianity  is  declared  to  be  a  spirit  of  charity,  "  which 
seeketh  not  its  own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  thinketh  no 
evil,  and  endureth  all  things,"  and  is  also  declared  to 
be  "  the  wisdom  from  above,  which  is  first  pure,  then 
peaceable,  gentle,  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy 
and  good  fruits  ;  "  can  I  hesitate  in  deciding  to  which 
of  the  races  in  that  land  Christianity  is  most  adapted, 
and  in  which  its  noblest  disciples  are  most  likely  to  be 
reared  ?  It  may  be  said,  indeed,  of  all  the  European 
nations,  that  they  are  distinguished  by  quahties  opposed 
to  the  spirit  of  Christianity  ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  events  of  history,  that  the  religion  of  Jesus 
should  have  struck  root  among  them.  As  yet  it  has 
not  subdued  them.  The  "law  of  honor,"  the  strongest 
of  all  laws  in  the  European  race,  is,  to  this  day,  direct- 
ly hostile  to  the  character  and  word  of  Christ.  The 
African  carries  within  him,  much  more  than  we,  the 
germs  of  a  meek,  long-suffering,  loving  virtue.  A  short 
residence  among  the  negroes  in  the  West  Indies  im- 
pressed me  with  their  capacity  of  improvement.  On 
all  sides  I  heard  of  their  religious  tendencies,  the  no- 
blest in  human  nature.  I  saw,  too,  on  the  plantation 
where  I  resided,  a  gracefulness  and  dignity  of  form  and 
motion,  rare  in  my  own  native  New  England.  And  this 
is  the  race  which  has  been  selected  to  be  trodden  down 
and  confounded  with  the  brutes !  Undoubtedly  the 
negroes  are  debased  ;  for,  were  slavery  not  debasing,  I 
should  have  little  quarrel  with  it.  But  let  not  their  de- 
gradation be  alleged  in  proof  of  peculiar  incapacity  of 
moral  elevation.  They  are  given  to  theft  ;  but  there  is 
no  peculiar,  aggravated  guilt  in  stealing  from  those  by 
whom  they  are  robbed  of  all  their  right?  and  their  very 


52  EMANCIPATION. 

persons.  They  are  given  to  falsehood  ;  but  this  is  the 
very  effect  produced  by  oppression  on  the  Irish  peas- 
antry. They  are  undoubtedly  sensual  ;  and  yet  the 
African  countenance  seldom  shows  that  coarse,  brutal 
sensuality  which  is  so  common  in  the  face  of  the  white 
man.  I  should  expect  from  the  African  race,  if  civil- 
ized, less  energy,  less  courage,  less  intellectual  original- 
ity, than  in  our  race,  but  more  amiableness,  tranquillity, 
gentleness,  and  content.  They  might  not  rise  to  an 
equahty  in  outward  condition,  but  would  probably  be  a 
much  happier  race.  There  is  no  reason  for  holding 
such  a  race  in  chains  ;  they  need  no  chain  to  make  them 
harmless.* 

In  the  remarks  now  made  I  have  aimed  only  to  ex- 
press my  sympathy  with  the  wronged.  As  to  the  white 
population  of  the  South,  I  have  no  intention  to  dispar- 
age it.  I  have  no  undue  partiality  to  the  North  ;  for  I 
believe,  that,  were  Northern  men  slave-holders,  and  sat- 
isfied that  they  could  grow  richer  by  slave  than  by  free 
labor,  not  a  few  would  retain  their  property  in  human 
flesh  with  as  resolute  and  furious  a  grasp  as  their  South- 
ern brethren.  In  truth,  until  the  cotton  culture  had  in- 
toxicated the  minds  of  the  South  with  golden  dreams, 
that  part  of  the  country  seemed  less  tainted  by  cupidity 
than  our  own.  The  character  of  that  region  is  still  a 
mixed  one,  impulsive,  passionate,  vindictive,  sensual  ; 
but  frank,  courageous,  self-relying,  enthusiastic,  and  ca- 
pable of  great  sacrifices  for  a  friend.  Could  the  wither- 
ing influence  of  slavery  be  withdrawn,  the  Southern 
character,  though  less  consistent,  less  based  on  princi- 
ple, might  be  more  attractive  and  lofty  than  that  of  the 
North.     The    South    is    fond    of  calling    itself  Anglo- 

*  See  note  at  the  end. 


e:\ia.\cipatio.\.  53 

Saxon.  Judging  from  character,  I  should  say  that  this 
name  belongs  much  more  to  the  North,  the  country  of 
steady,  persevering,  unconquerable  energy.  Our  South- 
ern brethren  remind  me  more  of  the  Normans.  They 
seem  to  have  in  their  veins  the  burning  blood  of  that 
pirate  race,  who  spread  terror  through  Europe,  who 
seized  part  of  France  as  a  prey,  and  then  pounced  on 
England  ;  a  conquering,  chivalrous  race,  from  which 
most  of  the  noble  families  of  England  are  said  to  be 
derived.  There  were  certainly  noble  traits  in  the  Nor- 
man character,  such  as  its  enthusiasm,  its  defiance  of 
peril  by  sea  and  land,  its  force  of  will,  its  rude  sense 
of  honor.  But  the  man  of  Norman  spirit,  or  Norman 
blood,  should  never  be  a  slave-holder.  He  is  the  last 
man  to  profit  by  this  relation.  His  pride  and  fierce 
passions  need  restraint,  not  perpetual  nourishment  ; 
whilst  his  indisposition  to  labor,  his  desire  to  live  by 
others'  toil,  demands  the  stern  pressure  of  necessity  to 
rescue  him  from  dishonorable  sloth.  Under  kindlier  in- 
fluences he  may  take  rank  among  the  noblest  of  his  race. 
However,  in  looking  at  the  South,  the  first  thing 
which  strikes  my  eyes  is,  not  the  Anglo-Saxon  or  the 
Norman,  but  the  Slave.  I  overlook  the  dwellings  of 
the  rich.  My  thoughts  go  to  the  comfortless  hut  of  the 
negro.  They  go  to  the  dark  mass  at  work  in  the  fields. 
That  injured  man  is  my  brother,  and  ought  not  my  sym- 
pathies to  gather  round  him  peculiarly  ?  Talk  not  to 
me  of  the  hospitality,  comforts,  luxuries  of  the  planter's 
mansion.  These  are  all  the  signs  of  a  mighty  wrong. 
My  thoughts  turn  first  to  the  slave.  I  would  not,  how- 
ever, exaggerate  his  evils.  He  is  not  the  most  unhap- 
py man  on  that  soil.  True,  his  powers  are  undevel- 
oped ;  but  therefore  he  is  incapable  of  the   guilt  which 


54  EMANCIPATION. 

Others  incur.  He  has,  as  we  have  seen,  a  generous  na- 
ture, and  his  day  of  improvement,  though  long  post- 
poned, is  to  come.  When  I  see  by  his  side  (and  is  the 
sight  very  rare  .'')  the  self-indulgent  man  who,  from  mere 
love  of  gain  and  ease,  extorts  his  sweat,  I  think  of  the 
fearful  words  which  the  Saviour  has  put  into  the  lips  of 
the  Hebrew  patriarch  in  the  unseen  world,  "  Thou  in 
thy  lifetime  receivedst  thy  good  things,  and  Lazarus 
evil  things  ;  but  now  he  is  comforted,  and  thou  art  tor- 
mented." Distinctions  founded  on  wrong  endure  but 
for  a  day.  Could  we  now  penetrate  the  future  world, 
what  starding  revelations  would  be  made  to  us  !  Before 
the  all-seeing,  impartial  justice  of  God,  we  should  see 
every  badge  of  humiliation  taken  off"  from  the  fallen, 
crushed,  and  enslaved  ;  and  where,  where  would  the 
selfish,  unfeeling  oppressor  appear  ? 

5.  I  shall  advert  but  to  one  more  topic  suggested  by 
Mr.  Gurney's  book  ;  I  refer  to  the  kind  and  respectful 
manner  in  which  he  speaks  of  many  slave-holders.  He 
has  no  sympathy  with  those  who  set  down  this  class  of 
men  indiscriminately  as  the  chief  of  sinners,  but  speaks 
with  satisfaction  of  examples  of  piety  and  virtue  which 
he  found  in  their  number.  By  some  among  us  this  len- 
ity will  be  ascribed  to  his  desire  to  win  for  himself  gold- 
en opinions  ;  but  he  deserves  no  such  censure.  The 
opinion  of  slave-holders  is  of  no  moment  to  him  ;  for  he 
has  left  them  for  ever,  and  returns  to  his  own  country, 
where  his  testimony  to  their  worth  will  find  no  sym- 
pathy, but  expose  him  to  suspicion,  perhaps  to  re- 
proach. Of  the  justice  of  his  judgment  I  have  no 
doubt.  Among  slave-holders  there  may  be,  and  there 
are,  good  men.     But  the  inferences  from  this  judgment 


EMANCIPATION.  55 

are  often  false  and  pernicious.  There  is  a  common  dis- 
position to  connect  the  character  of  the  slave-holder  and 
the  character  of  slavery.  Many  at  the  North,  who  by 
intercourse  of  business  or  friendship  have  come  to  ap- 
preciate the  good  quahties  of  individuals  at  the  South, 
are  led  to  the  secret,  if  not  uttered,  inference,  that  a  sys- 
tem sustained  by  such  people  can  be  no  monstrous 
thing.  They  repel  indignantly  the  invectives  of  the 
Abolitionists  against  the  master,  and  by  a  natural  pro- 
cess go  on  to  question  or  repel  their  denunciation  of 
slavery.  Here  lies  the  secret  of  much  of  the  want  of 
just  feeling  in  regard  to  this  institution.  People  be- 
come reconciled  to  it  in  a  measure  by  the  virtues  of  its 
supporters.  I  will  not  reply  to  this  error  by  insisting 
that  the  virtues  which  grow  up  under  slavery  bear  a 
small  proportion  to  the  vices  which  it  feeds.  I  take  a 
broader  ground.  I  maintain  that  we  can  never  argue 
safely  from  the  character  of  a  man  to  the  system  he 
upholds.  It  is  a  solemn  truth,  not  yet  understood  as  it 
should  be,  that  the  worst  institutions  may  be  sustained, 
the  worst  deeds  performed,  the  most  merciless  cruelties 
inflicted,  by  the  conscientious  and  the  good.  History 
teaches  no  truth  more  awful,  and  proofs  of  it  crowd  on 
us  from  the  records  of  the  earliest  and  latest  times. 
Thus,  the  worship  of  the  immoral  deities  of  heathenism 
w^as  sustained  by  the  great  men  of  antiquity.  The 
bloodiest  and  most  unrighteous  wars  have  been  insti- 
gated by  patriots.  For  ages  the  Jews  were  thought  to 
have  forfeited  the  rights  of  men,  as  much  as  the  African 
race  at  the  South,  and  were  insulted,  spoiled,  and  slain, 
not  by  mobs,  but  by  sovereigns  and  prelates,  who  really 
supposed  themselves  avengers  of  the  crucified  Saviour. 
Trajan  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  men  of  singular  humanity, 


56  EMANCIPATION. 

doomed  Christians  to  death,  surrendering  their  better 
feelings  to  what  they  thought  the  safety  of  the  state. 
Few  names  in  history  are  more  illustrious  than  Isabella 
of  Castile.  She  was  the  model,  in  most  respects,  of  a 
noble  woman.  But  Isabella  outstripped  her  age  in 
what  she  thought  pious  zeal  against  heretics.  Having 
taken  lessons  in  her  wars  against  the  Moors,  and  in  the 
extermination  of  the  Jews,  she  entered  fully  into  the 
spirit  of  the  Inquisition  ;  and  by  her  great  moral  power 
contributed  more  than  any  other  sovereign  to  the  ex- 
tension of  its  fearful  influence  ;  and  thus  the  horrible 
tortures  and  murders  of  that  infernal  institution,  in  her 
ill-fated  country,  lie  very  much  at  her  door.  Of  all  the 
causes  which  have  contributed  to  the  ruin  of  Spain, 
the  gloomy,  unrelenting  spirit  of  religious  bigotry  has 
wrought  most  deeply ;  so  that  the  illustrious  Isabella, 
through  her  zeal  for  religion  and  the  salvation  of  her 
subjects,  sowed  the  seeds  of  her  country's  ruin.  It  is 
remarkable,  that  Spain,  In  her  late  struggle  for  freedom, 
has  not  produced  one  great  man  ;  and  at  this  moment 
the  country  seems  threatened  with  disorganization  ;  and 
it  is  to  the  almost  universal  corruption,  to  the  want  of 
mutual  confidence,  to  the  deep  dissimulation  and  fraud, 
which  the  spirit  of  the  Inquisition,  the  spirit  of  mis- 
guided rehgion,  has  spread  through  society,  that  this 
degradation  must  chiefly  be  traced.  The  wrongs,  woes, 
cruelties,  inflicted  by  the  religious,  the  conscientious, 
are  among  the  most  important  teachings  of  the  past. 
Nor  has  this  strange  mixture  of  good  and  evil  ceased. 
Crimes,  to  which  time  and  usage  have  given  sanction, 
are  still  found  in  neighbourhood  with  virtue.  Examples 
taken  from  other  countries  stagger  belief,  but  are  true. 
Thus,   in  not   a   few  regions,  the   infant  Is   cast   out  to 


EMANCIPATION. 


57 


perish  by  parents  who  abound  in  tenderness  to  their 
surviving  children.  Our  own  enormities  are  to  be  under- 
stood hereafter.  Slavery  is  not,  then,  absolved  of  guilt 
by  the  virtues  of  its  supporters,  nor  are  its  wrongs  on 
this  account  a  whit  less  tolerable.  The  Inquisition  vyas 
not  a  whit  less  infernal  because  sustained  by  Isabella. 
Wars  are  not  a  whit  less  murderous  because  waged  for 
our  country's  glory  ;  nor  was  the  slave-trade  less  a  com- 
plication of  unutterable  cruelties  because  our  fathers 
brought  the  African  here  to  make  him  a  Christian. 

The  great  truth  now  insisted  on,  that  evil  is  evil,  no 
matter  at  whose  door  it  Hes,  and  that  men  acting  from 
conscience  and  religion  may  do  nefarious  deeds,  needs 
to  be  better  understood,  that  we  may  not  shelter  our- 
selves or  our  institutions  under  the  names  of  the  great 
or  the  good  who"  have  passed  away.     It  shows  us,  that, 
in  good  company,  we  may  do  the  work  of  fiends.     It 
teaches   us  how  important  is  the  culture  of  our  whole 
moral  and  rational  nature,  how  dangerous  to  rest  on  the 
old  and  the  estabhshed  without  habitually  and  honestly 
seeking  the  truth.     With  these  views,  I  beheve  at  once 
that  slavery  is  an  atrocious  wrong,  and  yet  that  among 
its  upholders  may  be  found  good  and  pious  people.     I 
do  not  look  on  a  slave  country  as  one  of  the  provinces 
of  hell.     There,   as  elsewhere,  the  human   spirit  may 
hold  communion  with  God,  and  it  may  ascend  thence 
to  heaven.      Still,  slavery  does  not  lay  aside  its  horrible 
nature  because   of  the   character   of  some   of  its   sup- 
porters.    Persecution  is  a  cruel  outrage,  no  matter  by 
whom  carried  on  ;  and  so  slavery,  no  matter  by  whom 
maintained,   works   fearful   evil  to    bond   and   free.     It 
breathes   a  moral  taint,   contaminates   young    and   old, 
prostrates   the  dearest  rights,   and  strengthens   the   cu- 


58  EMANCIPATION. 

pidity,  pride,  love  of  power,  and  selfish  sloth,  on  which 
it  is  founded.  I  readily  grant  that  among  slave-holders 
are  to  be  found  upright,  religious  men,  and,  especially, 
pious,  gentle,  disinterested,  noble-minded  women,  who 
sincerely  labor  to  be  the  guardians  and  benefactors  of 
the  slaves,  and  under  whose  kind  control  much  comfort 
may  be  enjoyed.  But  we  must  not  on  this  account  shut 
our  eyes  on  the  evils  of  the  institution  or  forbear  to  ex- 
pose them.  On  the  contrary,  this  is  the  very  reason 
for  hfting  up  our  voices  against  it ;  for  slavery  rests 
mainly  on  the  virtues  of  its  upholders.  Without  the 
sanction  of  good  and  great  names  it  would  soon  die. 
Were  it  left  as  a  monopoly  to  the  selfish,  cruel,  un- 
principled, it  could  not  stand  a  year.  It  would  become 
in  men's  view  as  infamous  as  the  slave-trade,  and  be 
ranked  among  felonies.  It  is  a  solemn  duty  to  speak 
plainly  of  wrongs  which  good  men  perpetrate.  It  is 
very  easy  to  cry  out  against  crimes  which  the  laws 
punish,  and  which  popular  opinion  has  branded  with  in- 
famy. What  is  especially  demanded  of  the  Christian 
is,  a  faithful,  honest,  generous  testimony  against  enor- 
mities which  are  sanctioned  by  numbers,  and  fashion, 
and  wealth,  and  especially  by  great  and  honored  names, 
and  which,  thus  sustained,  lift  up  their  heads  to  heaven, 
and  repay  rebuke  with  menace  and  indignation. 

I  know  that  there  are  those  who  consider  all  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  virtues  of  slave-holders  as  treach- 
ery to  the  cause  of  freedom.  But  truth  is  truth,  and 
must  always  be  spoken  and  trusted.  To  be  just  is  a 
greater  work  than  to  free  slaves,  or  propagate  religion, 
or  save  souls.  I  have  faith  in  no  policy  but  that  of 
simplicity  and  godly  sincerity.  The  crimes  of  good 
men  in  past  times,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  have  sprung 


EMANCIPATION.  59 

chiefly  from  the  disposition  to  sacrifice  the  simple, 
primary  obligations  of  truth,  justice,  and  humanity,  to 
some  grand  cause,  such  as  religion  or  country,  which 
has  dazzled  and  bewildered  their  moral  sense.  To  free 
the  slave,  let  us  not  wrong  his  master.  Let  us  rather 
find  comfort  in  the  thought,  that  there  is  no  unmixed 
evil,  that  a  spirit  of  goodness  mixes  more  or  less  with 
the  worst  usages,  and  that  even  slavery  is  illumined  by 
the  virtues  of  the  bond  and  free. 

I  have  now  finished  my  remarks  on  Mr.  Gurney's 
book,  and  in  doing  so  I  join  with  many  readers  in  thank- 
ing him  for  the  good  news  he  has  reported,  and  in  re- 
peating his  prayers  for  the  success  of  emancipation.  I 
now  proceed  to  a  different  order  of  considerations,  of 
great  importance,  and  which  ought  always  to  be  con- 
nected with  such  discussions  as  have  now  engaged  us. 
The  subject  before  us  is  not  one  of  mere  speculation. 
It  has  a  practical  side.  There  are  Duties  which  be- 
long to  us,  as  Individuals,  and  as  Free  States,  in  regard 
to  slavery.     To  these  I  now  ask  attention. 

I  begin  with  individuals  ;  and  their  duty  is,  to  be 
faithful  in  their  testimony  against  this  great  evil,  to  speak 
their  minds  freely  and  fully,  and  thus  to  contribute  what 
they  may  to  the  moral  power  of  public  opinion.  It  is 
not  enough  to  think  and  feel  justly.  Sentiments  not 
expressed  slumber,  and  too  often  die.  Utterance,  in 
some  form  or  other,  is  a  principal  duty  of  a  social  being. 
The  chief  good  which  an  enlightened,  virtuous  mind 
can  do  is,  to  bring  itself  forth.  Not  a  few  among  us 
have  refrained  from  this  duty,  have  been  speechless  in 
regard  to  slavery,  through  disapprobation  of  what  they 
have  called  the    violence  of  the   Abolitionists.     They 


60  EMANCIPATION. 

have  said,  that  in  this  rage  of  the  elements  it  was  fit  to 
be  still.  But  the  storm  is  passing  away.  Abohtionism, 
in  obedience  to  an  irresistible  law  of  our  nature,  has 
parted  with  much  of  its  original  vehemence.  All  noble 
enthusiasms  pass  through  a  feverish  stage,  and  grow 
wiser  and  more  serene.  Still  more,  the  power  of  the 
Anti-slavery  Association  is  not  a  little  broken  by  internal 
divisions,  and  by  its  increasing  reliance  on  political  ac- 
tion. It  has  thrown  away  its  true  strength,  that  is, 
moral  influence,  in  proportion  as  it  has  consented  to  mix 
in  the  frays  of  party.  Now  then,  when  associations  are 
waning,  it  is  time  for  the  individual  to  be  heard,  time 
for  a  free,  solemn  protest  against  wrong. 

It  is  often  said,  that  all  moral  efforts  to  forward  the 
abohtion  of  slavery  are  futile  ;  that  to  expect  men  to 
sacrifice  interest  to  duty  is  a  proof  of  insanity  ;  that,  as 
long  as  slavery  is  a  good  pecuniary  speculation,  the 
South  will  stand  by  it  to  the  death  ;  that,  whenever 
slave-labor  shall  prove  a  drug,  it  will  be  abandoned,  and 
not  before.  It  is  vain,  we  are  told,  to  talk,  reason,  or 
remonstrate.  On  this  ground  some  are  anxious  to  bring 
East-India  cotton  into  competition  with  the  Southern, 
that,  by  driving  the  latter  from  the  market,  the  exces- 
sive stimulus  to  slave-breeding  and  the  profits  of  slave- 
labor  may  cease.  And  Is  this  true  .''  Must  men  be 
starved  into  justice  and  humanity  ?  Have  truth,  and 
religion,  and  conscience  no  power  .''  One  thing  we 
know,  that  the  insanity  of  opposing  moral  influence  to 
deep-rooted  evils  has,  at  least,  great  names  on  its  side. 
The  Christian  fahh  is  the  highest  form  of  this  madness 
and  folly,  and  its  history  shows  that  ''  the  foolishness  of 
God  is  stronger  than  men."  What  an  insult  is  it  on  the 
South,  and  on  human  nature,  to  believe  that  millions  of 


EMANCIPATION.  61 

slave-holders,  of  all  ages,  sexes,  and  conditions,  in  an 
age  of  freedom,  intelligence,  and  Christian  faith,  are 
proof  against  all  motives  but  the  very  lowest  !  Even  in 
the  most  hardened,  conscience  never  turns  wholly  to 
3tone.  Humanity  never  dies  out  among  a  people.  After 
all,  the  most  prevailing  voice  on  earth  is  that  of  truth. 
Could  emancipation  be  extorted  only  by  depreciation  of 
slave-labor,  it  would,  indeed,  be  a  good  ;  but  how  much 
happier  a  relation  would  the  master  establish  with  the 
colored  race,  if,  from  no  force  but  that  of  principle  and 
kindness,  he  should  set  them  free !  Undoubtedly,  at 
the  South,  as  elsewhere,  the  majority  are  selfish,  mer- 
cenary, corrupt  ;  but  it  would  be  easy  to  find  there 
more  than  "  ten  righteous,"  to  find  a  multitude  of  up- 
right, compassionate,  devout  minds,  which,  if  awakened 
from  the  long  insensibility  of  habit  to  the  evils  of  slavery, 
would  soon  overpower  the  influences  of  the  merely  self- 
ish slave-holder. 

We  are  told,  indeed,  by  the  South,  that  slavery  is  no 
concern  of  ours,  and  consequently  that  the  less  we  say 
of  it  the  better.  What !  shall  the  wrongdoer  forbid 
lookers-on  to  speak,  because  the  aflair  is  a  private  one, 
in  which  others  must  not  interfere  ?  Whoever  injures  a 
man  binds  all  men  to  remonstrate,  especially  when  the 
injured  is  too  weak  to  speak  in  his  own  behalf.  Let 
none  imagine,  that,  by  seizing  a  fellow-creature  and 
setting  him  apart  as  a  chattel,  they  can  sever  his  ties  to 
God  or  man.  Spiritual  connexions  are  not  so  easily 
broken.  You  may  carry  your  victim  ever  so  far,  you 
may  seclude  him  on  a  plantation  or  in  a  cell  ;  but  you 
cannot  transport  him  beyond  the  sphere  of  human  broth- 
erhood, or  cut  him  off  from  his  race.  The  great  bond 
of  humanity   is    the  last  to   be   dissolved.     Other  ties, 

VOL.    VI.  6 


62  EMANCIPATION. 

those  of  family  and  civil  society,  are  severed  by  death. 
This,  founded  as  it  is  on  what  is  immortal  in  our  nature, 
has  an  everlasting  sacredness,  and  is  never  broken  ; 
and  every  man  has  a  right,  and,  still  more,  is  bound,  to 
lift  up  his  voice  against  its  violation. 

There  are  many  whose  testimony  against  slavery  is 
very  much  diluted  by  the  fact  of  its  having  been  so  long 
sanctioned,  not  only  by  usage,  but  by  law,  by  public 
force,  by  the  forms  of  civil  authority.  They  bow 
before  numbers  and  prescription.  But  in  an  age  of 
inquiry  and  innovation,  when  other  institutions  must 
make  good  their  title  to  continuance,  it  is  a  suspicious 
tenderness,  which  fears  to  touch  a  heavy  yoke  because 
it  has  grown  by  time  into  the  necks  of  our  fellow- 
creatures.  Do  we  not  know  that  unjust  monopolies, 
cruel  prejudices,  barbarous  punishments,  oppressive  in- 
stitutions, have  been  upheld  by  law  for  ages  ?  Majori- 
ties are  prone  to  think  that  they  can  create  right  by 
vote,  and  can  legalize  gainful  crimes  by  calling  the  forms 
of  justice  to  their  support.  But  these  conspiracies 
against  humanity,  these  insults  offered  to  the  majesty 
and  immutableness  of  truth  and  rectitude,  are  the  last 
forms  of  wickedness  to  be  spared.  Selfish  men,  by 
combining  into  a  majority,  cannot  change  tyranny  into 
right.  The  whole  earth  may  cry  out,  that  this  or  that 
man  was  made  to  be  owned  and  used  as  a  chattel,  or  a 
brute,  by  his  brother.  But  his  birthright  as  a  man,  as 
a  rational  creature  of  God,  cleaves  to  him  untouched  by 
the  clamor.  Crimes,  exalted  into  laws,  become  there- 
fore the  more  odious  ;  just  as  the  false  gods  of  heathen- 
ism, when  set  up  of  old  on  the  altar  of  Jehovah,  shocked 
his  true  worshippers  the  more  by  usurping  so  conspicu- 
ously the  honors  due  to  him  alone. 


ERIANCIPATION.  63 

It  is  important  that  wc  should,  each  of  us,  bear  our 
conscientious  testimony  against  slavery,  not  only  to  swell 
that  tide  of  public  opinion  which  is  to  sweep  it  away, 
but  that  we  may  save  ourselves  from  sinking  into  silent, 
unsuspected  acquiescence  in  the  evil.  A  constant  re- 
sistance is  needed  to  this  downward  tendency,  as  is 
proved  by  the  tone  of  feeling  in  the  Free  States.  What 
is  more  common  among  ourselves  than  a  courteous, 
apologetic  disapprobation  of  slavery,  which  differs  little 
from  taking  its  part  ?  This  is  one  of  its  worst  influences. 
It  taints  the  whole  country.  The  existence,  the  per- 
petual presence,  of  a  great,  prosperous,  unrestrained 
system  of  wrong  in  a  community  is  one  of  the  sorest 
trials  to  the  moral  sense  of  the  people,  and  needs  to  be 
earnestly  withstood.  The  idea  of  justice  becomes  un- 
consciously obscured  in  our  minds.  Our  hearts  become 
more  or  less  seared  to  wrong.  The  South  says,  that 
slavery  is  nothing  to  us  at  the  North.  But  through  our 
trade  we  are  brought  into  constant  contact  with  it  ;  we 
grow  familiar  with  it  ;  still  more,  we  thrive  by  it  ;  and 
the  next  step  is  easy,  to  consent  to  the  sacrifice  of 
human  beings  by  whom  we  prosper.  The  dead  know 
not  their  want  of  life  ;  and  so  a  people,  whose  moral 
sentiments  are  palsied  by  the  interweaving  of  all  their 
interests  v.-ith  a  system  of  oppression,  become  degraded 
without  suspecting  it.  In  consequence  of  this  con- 
nexion with  slave  countries,  the  idea  of  Human  Rights, 
that  great  idea  of  our  age,  and  on  which  we  profess  to 
build  our  institutions,  is  darkened,  weakened,  among  us, 
so  as  to  be  to  many  little  more  than  a  sound.  A  coun- 
try of  licensed,  legalized  wrongs  is  not  the  atmosphere 
m  which  the  sentiment  of  reverence  for  these  rights  can 
exist  in  full  power.     In  such  a  community  there  may  be 


G4  EMANCIPATION. 

a  respect  for  the  arbitrary  rights  which  law  creates  and 
may  destroy,  and  a  respect  for  historical  rights,  which 
rest  on  usage.  But  the  fundamental  rights  which  inhere 
in  man  as  man,  and  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  a  just, 
equitable,  beneficent,  noble  polity,  must  be  imperfectly 
comprehended.  This  depression  of  moral  sentiment  in 
a  people  is  an  evil  the  extent  of  which  is  not  easily 
apprehended.  It  affects  and  degrades  every  relation  of 
life.  Men  in  whose  sight  human  nature  is  stripped  of  all 
its  rights  and  dignity  cannot  love  or  honor  any  who 
possess  it,  as  they  ought.  In  offering  these  remarks  I 
do  not  forget,  what  I  rejoice  to  know,  that  there  is 
much  moral  feeling  among  us  in  regard  to  slavery.  But 
still,  there  is  a  strong  tendency  to  indifference,  and  to 
something  worse  ;  and  on  this  account  we  owe  it  to  our 
own  moral  health,  and  to  the  moral  life  of  society,  to 
express  plainly  and  strongly  our  moral  abhorrence  of 
this  institution. 

This  duty  is  rendered  more  urgent  by  the  depraving 
tendency  of  our  political  connexions  and  agitations.  It 
has  been  said,  much  too  sweepingly,  but  with  some 
approximation  to  truth,  that  in  this  country  we  have 
hosts  of  politicians,  but  no  statesmen  ;  meaning,  by  the 
latter  term,  men  of  comprehensive,  far-reaching  views, 
who  study  the  permanent  good  of  the  community,  and 
hold  fast,  under  all  changes,  to  the  great  principles  on 
which  its  salvation  rests.  The  generality  of  our  public 
men  are  mere  politicians,  purblind  to  the  future,  fevered 
by  the  present,  merging  patriotism  in  party  spirit,  intent 
on  carrying  a  vole  or  election,  no  matter  what  means 
they  use  or  what  precedents  they  establish,  and  holding 
themselves  absolved  from  a  strict  morality  in  public 
affairs.      A   })rincipnl  object   of   political   tactics    is,    to 


EMANCIPATION.  65 

conciliate  and  gain  over  to  one  or  another  side  the  most 
important  interests  of  the  country  ;  and  of  consequence 
the  slave  interest  is  propitiated  with  no  small  care.  No 
party  can  afford  to  lose  the  South.  The  master's  vote 
is  too  precious  to  be  hazarded  by  sympathy  with  the 
slaves.  Accordingly  parties  and  office-seekers  wash 
their  hands  of  Abolitionism  as  if  it  were  treason,  and, 
without  committing  themselves  to  slavery,  protest  their 
innocence  of  hostility  to  it.  How  far  they  would  bow 
to  the  slave  power,  were  the  success  of  a  great  election 
to  depend  on  soothing  it,  cannot  be  foretold,  especially 
since  we  have  seen  the  party  most  jealous  of  popular 
rights  surrendering  to  this  power  the  right  of  petition. 
In  this  state  of  things  the  slave-holding  interest  has  the 
floor  of  Congress  very  much  to  itself.  Now  and  then  a 
man  of  moral  heroism  meets  it  with  erect  front  and  a 
tone  of  conscious  superiority.  But  political  life  does 
not  abound  in  men  of  heroic  mould.  Military  heroes 
may  be  found  in  swarms.  Thousands  die  fearlessly  on 
the  field  of  battle,  or  the  field  of  "  honor."  But  the 
moral  courage  which  can  stand  cold  looks,  frowns,  and 
contempt,  which  asks  counsel  of  higher  oracles  than 
people  or  rulers,  and  cheerfully  gives  up  preferment  to 
a  just  cause,  is  rare  enough  to  be  canonized.  In  such  a 
country  the  tendency  to  corruption  of  moral  sentiment 
in  regard  to  slavery  is  strong.  Many  are  tempted  to  ac- 
quiescence in  it  ;  and  of  consequence  the  good  man,  the 
friend  of  humanity  and  his  country,  should  meet  the  danger 
by  strong,  uncompromising  reprobation  of  this  great  wrong. 
I  would  close  this  topic  with  observing,  that  there 
is  one  portion  of  the  community  to  which  I  would  espe- 
cially commend  the  cause  of  the  enslaved,  and  the  duty 
of  open  testimony  against  this  form  of  oppression  ;  and 
6* 


66  e:>i  a:\cipation. 

that  Is,  our  women.  To  them,  above  all  others,  slavery- 
should  seem  an  intolerable  evil,  because  its  chief  victims 
are  women.  In  their  own  country,  and  not  very  far 
fiom  them,  there  are  great  multitudes  of  their  sex  ex- 
posed to  dishonor,  held  as  property  by  man,  unprotected 
by  law,  driven  to  the  field  by  the  overseer,  and  happy 
if  not  consigned  to  infinitely  baser  uses,  denied  the  rights 
of  wife  and  mother,  and  liable  to  be  stripped  of  husband 
and  child  when  another's  pleasure  or  interest  may  so 
determine.  Such  is  the  lot  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  their  sisters  ;  and  is  there  nothing  here  to  stir  up 
woman's  sympathy,  nothing  for  her  to  remember,  when 
she  approaches  God's  throne  or  opens  her  heart  to  her 
fellow-creatures  .''  Woman  should  talk  of  the  enslaved 
to  her  husband,  and  do  what  she  can  to  awaken,  amongst 
his  ever-thronging  worldly  cares,  some  manly  indigna- 
tion, some  interest  in  human  freedom.  She  should 
breathe  into  her  son  a  deep  sense  of  the  wrongs  which 
man  inflicts  on  man,  and  send  him  forth  from  her  arms 
u  friend  of  the  w^eak  and  injured.  She  should  look  on 
her  daughter,  and  shudder  at  the  doom  of  so  many 
daughters  on  her  own  shores.  When  she  meets  with 
woman,  she  should  talk  with  her  of  the  ten  thousand 
homes  which  have  no  defence  against  licentiousness, 
against  violation  of  the  most  sacred  domestic  ties  ;  and 
through  her  whole  Intercourse,  the  fit  season  should  be 
chosen  to  give  strength  to  that  deep  moral  conviction 
which  can  alone  overcome  this  tremendous  evil. 

I  know  it  will  be  said,  that,  in  thus  doing,  woman 
will  wander  beyond  her  sphere,  and  forsake  her  proper 
work.  What  !  Do  I  hear  such  language  in  a  civilized 
age,  and  in  a  land  of  Christians  .''  What,  let  me  ask,  is 
woman's    work  ?     It   is,    to   be  a   minister  of  Christian 


EMANCIPATION.  67 

love.  It  is,  to  sympathize  with  human  misery.  It 
is,  to  breathe  sympathy  into  man's  heart.  It  is,  to 
keep  aUve  in  society  some  feeling  of  human  brother- 
hood. This  is  her  mission  on  earth.  Woman's  sphere, 
I  am  told,  is  home.  And  why  is  home  instituted  ? 
Why  are  domestic  relations  ordained  ^  These  relations 
are  for  a  day  ;  they  cease  at  the  grave.  And  what  is 
their  great  end  ?  To  nourish  a  love  which  will  endure 
for  ever,  to  awaken  universal  sympathy.  Our  ties  to 
our  parents  are  to  bind  us  to  the  Universal  Parent. 
Our  fraternal  bonds,  to  help  us  to  see  in  all  men  our 
brethren.  Home  is  to  be  a  nursery  of  Christians  ;  and 
what  is  the  end  of  Christianity,  but  to  awaken  in  all 
souls  the  principles  of  universal  justice  and  universal 
charity  }  At  home  we  are  to  learn  to  love  our  neigh- 
bour, our  enemy,  the  stranger,  the  poor,  the  oppressed. 
If  home  do  not  train  us  to  this,  then  it  is  wofully  per- 
verted. If  home  counteract  and  quench  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  then  we  must  remember  the  Divine  Teach- 
er, who  commands  us  to  forsake  father  and  mother, 
brother  and  sister,  wife  and  child,  for  his  sake,  and  for 
the  sake  of  his  truth.  If  the  walls  of  home  are  the 
bulwarks  of  a  narrow,  clannish  love,  through  which  the 
cry  of  human  miseries  and  wrongs  cannot  penetrate, 
then  it  is  mockery  to  talk  of  their  sacredness.  Domes- 
tic life  is  at  present  too  much  in  hostility  to  the  spirit 
of  Christ.  A  family  should  be  a  community  of  dear 
friends,  strengthening  one  another  for  the  service  of  their 
fellow-creatures.  Can  we  give  the  name  of  Christian 
to  most  of  our  families  ?  Can  we  give  it  to  women  who 
have  no  thoughts  or  sympathies  for  multitudes  of  their 
own  sex,  distant  only  two  or  three  days'  journey  from 
their  doors,  and  exposed  to  outrages   from  which  they 


6S  EMANCIPATION. 

would    pray    to    have    their    own    daughters    snatched, 
though  it  were  by  death  ? 

Having  spoken  of  the  individual,  I  proceed  to  speak 
of  the  duties  of  the  Free  States,  in  their  political  ca- 
pacity, in  regard  to  slavery  ;  and  these  may  be  reduced 
to  two  heads,  both  of  them  negative.  The  first  is,  to 
abstain  as  rigidly  from  the  use  of  political  power  against 
slavery  in  the  States  where  it  is  established  as  from 
exercising  it  against  slavery  in  foreign  communities. 
The  second  is,  to  free  ourselves  from  all  obligation  to 
use  the  powers  of  the  National  or  State  governments  in 
any  manner  whatever  for  the  support  of  slavery. 

The  first  duty  is  clear.  In  regard  to  slavery  the 
Southern  States  stand  on  the  ground  of  foreign  com- 
munities. They  are  not  subject  or  responsible  to  us 
more  than  these.  No  State  sovereignty  can  intermeddle 
with  the  institutions  of  another.  We  might  as  legiti- 
mately spread  our  legislation  over  the  schools,  churches, 
or  persons  of  the  South  as  over  their  slaves.  And  in 
regard  to  the  General  Government,  we  know  that  it  was 
not  intended  to  confer  any  power,  direct  or  indirect,  on 
the  Free  over  the  Slave  States.  Any  pretension  to  such 
power  on  the  part  of  the  North  would  have  dissolved 
immediately  the  Convention  which  framed  the  Consti- 
tution. Any  act  of  the  Free  States,  when  assembled  in 
Congress,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  other  Slates, 
would  be  a  violation  of  the  national  compact,  and  would 
be  just  cause  of  complaint. 

On  this  account  I  cannot  but  regret  the  disposition 
of  a  part  of  our  Abolitionists  to  organize  themselves  into 
a  political  party.  Were  it,  indeed,  their  simple  purpose 
to  free  the  North  from  all  obligation  to  give  support  to 


EMANCIPATION. 


69 


slavery,  I  should  agree  with  them  in  their  end,  though 
not  in  iheir  means.     By  looking,  as  they  do,  to  poUtical 
organization  as  a  means  of  putting  down  the  institution 
in  other   States  they  lay  themselves  open  to  reproach. 
I  know,  indeed,   that  excellent  men  are  engaged  in  this 
movement,  and  I  acquit  them  of  all  disposition  to  tran- 
scend the  hmits  of  the  Federal  Constitution.     But  it  is 
to  be  feared  that  they  may  construe  this  instrument  too 
literally  ;  that,  forgetting  its  spirit,    they   may   seek  to 
use  its  powers  for  purposes  very  remote  from  its  original 
design.     Their  failure  is  almost  inevitable.     By  extend- 
ing tlieir  agency  beyond  its  true  bounds  they  insure  its 
defeat  in  its  legitimate  sphere.     By  assuming  a  pohtical 
character  they  lose  the  reputation  of  honest  enthusiasts, 
and  come  to  be  considered  as  hypocritical  seekers  after 
place   and  power.      Should   they,   in   opposition  to    all 
probabihty,    become    a    formidable    party,    they   would 
unite   the   Slave-holding    States   as   one   man  ;  and    the 
South,  always  able,  when  so  united,   to  hnk  with  itself 
a  party  at  the  North,  would  rule  the  country  as  before. 

No  association,  like  the  Abolitionists,  formed  for  a 
particular  end,  can,  by  becoming  a  poUtical  organiza- 
tion, rise  to  power.  If  it  can  contrive  to  perpetuate 
itself,  it  will  provoke  contempt  by  the  disproportion  of 
its  means  to  its  ends  ;  but  the  probability  is,  that  it  will 
be  swallowed  up  in  the  whirlpool  of  one  or  the  other  ot 
the  great  national  parties,  from  whose  fury  hardly  any 
thing  escapes.  These  mighty  forces  sweep  all  lesser 
political  organizations  before  them.  And  these  are  to 
be  robbed  of  their  pernicious  power,  not  by  forming  a 
third  party,  but  by  the  increase  of  intelligence  and  virtue 
in  the  community,  and  by  the  silent  flowing  together  of 
reflecting,  upright,  independent  men,  who  will  feel  them- 


70  EMANCIPATION. 

selves  bound  to  throw  off  the  shackles  of  party ;  who 
will  refuse  any  longer  to  neutralize  their  moral  influence 
by  coahtion  with  the  self-seeking,  the  hollow-hearted, 
and  the  double-tongued  ;  whose  bond  of  union  will  be, 
the  solemn  purpose  to  speak  the  truth  without  adultera- 
tion, to  adhere  to  the  right  without  compromise,  to  sup- 
port good  measures  and  discountenance  bad,  come  from 
what  quarter  they  may,  to  be  just  to  all  parties,  and  to 
expose  alike  the  corruptions  of  all.  There  are  now 
among  us  good  and  true  men  enough  to  turn  the  balance 
on  all  great  questions,  would  they  but  confide  in  princi- 
ple, and  be  loyal  to  it  in  word  and  deed.  Under  their 
influence,  newspapers  might  be  established  in  which  men 
and  measures  of  all  parties  would  be  tried  without  fear 
or  favor  by  the  moral,  Christian  law  ;  and  this  revolution 
of  the  press  would  do  more  than  all  things  else  for  the 
political  regeneration  of  the  country.  The  people  would 
learn  from  it,  that,  whilst  boasting  of  Hberty,  they  are 
used  as  puppets  and  tools ;  that  popular  sovereignty, 
with  all  its  paper  bulwarks,  is  a  show  rather  than  a  sub- 
stance, as  long  as  party  despotism  endures.  It  is  by 
such  a  broad,  generous  improvement  of  society,  that 
our  present  political  organizations  are  to  be  put  down, 
and  not  by  a  third  party  on  a  narrow  basis,  and  which, 
instead  of  embracing  all  the  interests  of  the  country, 
confines  itself  to  a  single  point. 

I  cannot  but  express  again  regret  at  the  willingness 
of  the  Abolitionists  to  rely  on  and  pursue  political  power. 
Their  strength  has  always  lain  in  the  simplicity  of  their 
religious  trust,  in  their  confidence  in  Christian  truth. 
Formerly  the  hope  sometimes  crossed  my  mind,  that, 
by  enlarging  their  views  and  purifying  their  spirit,  they 
would  gradually  become  a  religious  community,  founded 


EMANCIPATION.  7X 

on  the  recognition  of  God  as  the  common,  equal  Father 
of  all  mankind,  on  the  recognition  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
having  lived  and  died  to  unite  to  himself  and  to  baptize 
with  his  spirit  every  human  soul,  and  on  the  recognition 
of  the  brotherhood  of  all  the  members  of  God's  human 
family.  There  are  signs  that  Christians  are  tending, 
however  slowly,  toward  a  church  in  which  these  great 
ideas  of  Christianity  will  be  reahzed ;  in  which  a  spiritual 
reverence  for  God,  and  for  the  human  soul,  will  take 
place  of  the  customary  homage  paid  to  outward  dis- 
tinctions ;  and  in  which  our  present  narrow  sects  will  be 
swallowed  up.  I  thought  that  I  saw,  in  the  principles 
with  which  the  Abolitionists  started,  a  struggling  of  the 
human  mind  toward  this  Christian  union.  It  is  truly  a 
disappointment  to  see  so  many  of  their  number  be- 
coming a  political  party,  an  association  almost  always 
corrupting,  and  most  justly  suspected  on  account  of  the 
sacrifices  of  truth,  and  honor,  and  moral  independence, 
which  it  extorts  even  from  well-disposed  men.  Their 
proper  work  is,  to  act  on  all  parties,  to  support  each  as 
far  as  it  shall  be  true  to  human  rights,  to  gather  laborers 
for  the  good  cause  from  all  bodies,  civil  and  religious, 
and  to  hold  forth  this  cause  as  a  universal  interest,  and 
not  as  the  property  or  stepping-stone  of  a  narrow  asso- 
ciation. 

I  know  that  it  is  said,  that  nothing  but  this  political 
action  can  put  down  slavery.  Then  slavery  must  con- 
tinue ;  and  if  we  faithfully  do  our  part  as  Christians,  we 
are  not  responsible  for  its  continuance.  We  are  not  to 
feel  as  if  we  were  bound  to  put  it  down  by  any  and 
every  means.  We  do  not  speak  as  Christians,  when 
we  say  that  slavery  must  and  shall  fall.  Who  are  we, 
to   dictate  thus  to   Omnipotence  }     It  has   pleased  the 


72  EMANCIPATION. 

mysterious  Providence  of  God  that  terrible  evils  should 
be  left  to  overshadow  the  earth  for  ages.  "  How  long, 
O  Lord  ?  "  has  been  the  secret  cry  extorted  from  good 
men  by  the  crimes  of  the  world  for  six  thousand  years. 
On  the  philanthropist  of  this  age  the  same  sad  burden 
is  laid,  and  it  cannot  be  removed.  We  must  not  feel, 
that,  were  slavery  destroyed,  paradise  would  be  re- 
stored. As  in  our  own  souls  the  conquest  of  one  evil 
passion  reveals  to  us  new  spiritual  foes,  so  in  society 
one  great  evil  hides  in  its  shadow  others  perhaps  as  fear- 
ful, and  its  fall  only  summons  us  to  new  efforts  for  the 
redemption  of  the  race.  We  know,  indeed,  that  good  is 
to  triumph  over  evil  in  this  world  ;  that  "Christ  must 
reign  till  he  shall  put  all  enemies  beneath  his  feet,"  or 
until  his  spirit  shall  triumph  over  the  spirit,  oppressions, 
corruptions  of  the  world.  Let  us,  then,  work  against 
all  wrong,  but  with  a  calm,  solemn  earnestness,  not  WMth 
vehemence  and  tumult.  Let  us  work  with  deep  rever- 
ence and  filial  trust  toward  God,  and  not  in  the  proud 
impetuosity  of  our  own  wills.  Happy  the  day,  when 
such  laborers  shall  be  gathered  by  an  inward  attraction 
into  one  church  or  brotherhood,  whose  badge,  creed, 
spirit,  shall  be  Universal  Love  !  This  will  be  the  true 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  and  its  might  will  infinitely 
transcend  political  power. 

For  one,  I  have  no  desire  to  force  emancipation  on 
the  South.  Had  I  political  power,  I  should  fear  to  use 
it  in  such  a  cause.  A  forced  emancipation  is,  on  the 
whole,  working  well  in  the  West  Indies,  because  the 
mother  country  watches  over  and  guides  it,  and  pours 
in  abundantly  moral  and  religious  influences  to  calm, 
and  enlighten,  and  soften  the  minds  newly  set  free. 
Here  no  such  control  can  be  exercised.     Freedom  at 


EMANCIPATION.  73 

the  South,  to  work  well,  must  be  the  gift  of  the  masters. 

Emancipation  must  be  their  own  act  and  deed.  It  must 
spring  from  good-will  and  sense  of  justice,  or,  at  least, 
from  a  sense  of  interest,  and  not  be  extorted  by  a  foreign 
power ;  and  with  this  origin,  it  will  be  more  successful 
even  than  the  experiment  in  the  West  Indies.  In  those 
islands,  especially  in  Jamaica,  the  want  of  cordial  co- 
operation on  the  part  of  the  planters  has  continually 
obstructed  the  beneficial  working  of  freedom,  and  still 
throws  a  doubtfulness  over  its  complete  success. 

I  have  said,  that  the  Free  States  cannot  rightfully  use 
the  power  of  their  own  legislatures  or  of  Congress  to 
abolish  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  is  established. 
Their  first  duty  is  to  abstain  from  such  acts.  Their 
next  and  more  solemn  duty  is  to  abstain  from  all  action 
for  the  support  of  slavery.  If  they  are  not  to  subvert, 
much  less  are  they  to  sustain  it.  There  is  some  excuse 
for  communities,  when,  under  a  generous  impulse,  they 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  in  other  states,  and 
by  force  restore  their  rights  ;  but  they  are  without  ex- 
cuse in  aiding  other  states  in  binding  on  men  an  un- 
righteous yoke.  On  this  subject,  our  fathers,  in  framing 
the  Constitution,  swerved  from  the  right.  We,  their 
children,  at  the  end  of  half  a  century,  see  the  path  of 
duty  more  clearly  than  they,  and  must  walk  in  it.  To 
this  point  the  public  mind  has  long  been  tending,  and 
the  time  has  come  for  looking  at  it  fully,  dispassionately, 
and  with  manly  and  Christian  resolution.  This  is  not  a 
question  of  abolitionism.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with 
putting  down  slavery.  We  are  simply  called,  as  com- 
munities, to  withhold  support  from  it,  to  stand  aloof,  to 
break  off  all   connexion   with  this   criminal   institution. 

VOL.    VI.  7 


74  EMANCIPATION. 

The  Free  States  ought  to  say  to  the  South,  ^*  Slavery  is 
yours,  not  ours,  and  on  you  the  whole  responsibility  of 
it  must  fall.  We  wash  our  hands  of  it  wholly.  We 
shall  exert  no  power  against  it  ;  but  do  not  call  on  us  to 
put  forth  the  least  power  in  its  behalf.  We  cannot, 
directly  or  indirectly,  become  accessories  to  this  wrong. 
We  cannot  become  jailers,  or  a  patrol,  or  a  watch,  to 
keep  your  slaves  under  the  yoke.  You  must  guard 
them  yourselves.  If  they  escape,  we  cannot  send  them 
back.  Our  soil  makes  whoever  touches  it  free.  On 
this  point  you  must  manage  your  own  concerns.  You 
must  guard  your  own  frontier.  In  case  of  insurrection, 
we  cannot  come  to  you,  save  as  friends  alike  of  bond 
and  free.  Neither  in  our  separate  legislatures,  nor  in 
the  national  legislature,  can  we  touch  slavery  to  sustain 
it.  On  this  point  you  are  foreign  communities.  You 
have  often  said,  that  you  need  not  our  protection  ;  and 
we  must  take  you  at  your  word.  In  so  doing  we  have 
no  thought  of  acting  on  your  fears.  We  think  only  of 
our  duty,  and  this,  in  all  circumstances,  and  at  all  haz- 
ards, must  be  done." 

The  people  of  the  North  think  but  little  of  the  extent 
of  the  support  given  to  slavery  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment ;  though,  when  it  is  considered  that  "  the  slave- 
holding  interest  has  a  representation  in  Congress  of 
twenty-fwe  members,  in  addition  to  the  fair  and  equal 
representation  of  the  free  inhabitants,"  it  is  very  natural 
to  expect  the  exercise  of  the  powers  of  Congress  in 
behalf  of  this  institution.  The  Federal  Government  has 
been,  and  is,  the  friend  of  the  slave-holder,  and  the  ene- 
my of  the  slave.  It  authorizes  the  former  to  seize,  in  a 
Free  State,  a  colored  man,  on  the  ground  of  being  a  fu- 
gitive, and  to  bring  him  before  a  justice  of  the  peace  of 


EMANCIPATION.  75 

his  own  selection  ;  and  this  magistrate,  without  a  jury, 
and  without  obligation  to  receive  any  testimony  but  what 
the  professed  master  offers,  can  dehver  up  the  accused 
to  be  held  as  property  for  life.  The  Federal  Govern- 
ment authorizes  not  only  the  apprehension  and  impris- 
onment, in  the  District  of  Columbia,  of  a  negro  sus- 
pected of  being  a  runaway,  but  the  sale  of  him  as  a 
slave,  if  within  a  certain  time  he  cannot  prove  his  free- 
dom. It  sustains  slavery  within  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, though  "  under  its  exclusive  jurisdiction,"  and 
allows  this  District  to  be  one  of  the  chief  slave-marts 
of  the  country.  Not  a  slave-auction  is  held  there  but 
by  the  authority  of  Congress.  The  Federal  Govern- 
ment has  endeavoured  to  obtain  by  negotiation  the  res- 
toration of  fugitive  slaves  who  have  sought  and  found 
freedom  in  Canada,  and  has  offered  in  return  to  restore 
fugitives  from  the  West  Indies.  It  has  disgraced  itself 
in  the  sight  of  all  Europe,  by  claiming,  as  property, 
slaves  who  have  been  shipwrecked  on  the  British  is- 
lands, and  who  by  touching  British  soil  had  become 
free.  It  has  instructed  its  representative  at  Madrid  to 
announce  to  the  Spanish  court,  "  that  the  emancipation 
of  the  slave  population  of  Cuba  would  be  very  severely 
felt  in  the  adjacent  shores  of  the  United  States."  It 
has  purchased  a  vast  unsettled  territory  which  it  has 
given  up  to  be  overrun  with  slavery.  To  crowii  all,  it 
has,  in  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  of  the  right 
granted  even  by  despotism  to  its  subjects,  refused  to 
listen  to  petitions  against  these  abuses  of  power.  After 
all  this  humbling  experience,  is  it  not  time  for  the  Free 
States  to  pause,  to  reflect,  to  weigh  well  what  they  are 
doing  through  the  national  government,  and  to  resolve 


76  EMANCIPATION. 

that  they  will  free  themselves  from  every  obligation  to 
uphold  an  institution  which  they  know  to  be  unjust  ?  * 

The  object  now  proposed  is  to  be  effected  by  amend- 
ments of  the  Constitution,  and  these  should  be  sought 
in  good  faith ;  that  is,  not  as  the  means  of  abolishing 
slavery,  but  as  a  means  of  removing  us  from  a  partici- 
pation of  its  guilt.  The  Free  States  should  take  the 
high  ground  of  duty ;  and,  to  raise  them  to  this  height, 
the  press,  the  pulpit,  and  all  religious  and  upright  men 
should  join  their  powers.  A  people  under  so  pure  an 
impulse  cannot  fail.  Such  arrangements  should  be 
made  that  the  word,  slavery,  need  not  be  heard  again  in 
Congress  or  in  the  local  legislatures.  On  the  principle 
now  laid  down,  the  question  of  abolition  in  the  District 
of  Columbia  should  be  settled.  Emancipation  at  the 
seat  of  government  ought  to  be  insisted  on,  not  for  the 
purpose  of  influencing  slavery  elsewhere,  but  because 
what  is  done  there  is  done  by  the  whole  people,  because 
slavery  sustained  there  is  sustained  by  the  Free  States. 
It  is  said,  that  the  will  of  the  citizens  of  the  District 
is  to  be  consulted.  Were  this  true,  which  cannot  be 
granted,  the  difficulty  may  easily  be  surmounted.  Let 
Congress  resolve  to  establish  itself  where  it  will  have 
no  slavery  to  control  or  uphold,  and  the  people  of  the 
District  of  Columbia  will  remove  the  obstacle  to  its 
continuance  where  it  is,  as  fast  as  can  be  desired. 

The  great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  the  arrangement 
now  proposed  is,  the  article  of  the  Constitution  requiring 
the  surrender  and  return  of  fugitive   slaves.     A    State 

*  On  the  subject  of  this  paragraph  the  reader  will  do  well  to  consult  "  A 
View  of  the  Action  of  the  Federal  Government  in  behalf  of  Slavery,  by 
William  Jay."  The  author  is  a  son  of  Chief  Justice  Jay,  and  a  worthy 
representative  of  the  spirit  and  principles  of  his  illustrious  father. 


EMANCIPATION.  77 

obeying  this  seems  to  me  to  contract  as  great  guilt  as  if 
it  were  to  bring  slaves  from  Africa.  No  man  who  re- 
gards slavery  as  among  the  greatest  wrongs  can  in  any 
way  reduce  his  fellow-creatures  to  it.  VThe  flying  slave 
asserts  the  first  right  of  a  man,  and  should  meet  aid 
rather  than  obstruction.  Who  that  has  the  heart  of  a 
freeman,  or  breathes  the  love  of  a  Christian,  can  send 
him  back  to  his  chain  .''  On  this  point,  however,  the 
difficulty  of  an  arrangement  is  every  day  growing  less. 
This  provision  of  the  Constitution  is  undergoing  a  silent 
repeal,  and  no  human  power  can  sustain  it.  Just  in  pro- 
portion as  slavery  becomes  the  object  of  conscientious 
reprobation  in  the  Free  States,  just  so  fast  the  difficulty 
of  sending  back  the  fugitive  increases.  In  the  part  of 
the  country  where  I  reside  it  is  next  to  impossible  that 
the  slave  who  has  reached  us  should  be  restored  to 
bondage.  Not  that  our  courts  of  law  are  obstructed  ; 
not  that  mobs  would  rescue  the  fugitive  from  the  magis- 
trate. We  respect  the  public  authorities.  Not  an  arm 
would  be  raised  against  the  officers  of  justice.  But 
what  are  laws,  against  the  moral  sense  of  a  community  ? 
No  man  among  us,  who  values  his  character,  would  aid 
the  slave-hunter.  The  slave-hunter  here  would  be 
looked  on  with  as  little  favor  as  the  felonious  slave- 
trader.  Those  among  us  who  dread  to  touch  slavery 
in  its  own  region,  lest  insurrection  and  tumults  should 
follow  change,  still  feel  that  the  fugitive  who  has  sought 
shelter  so  far  can  breed  no  tumult  in  the  land  which  he 
has  left,  and  that,  of  consequence,  no  motive  but  the 
unhallowed  love  of  gain  can  prompt  to  his  pursuit ;  and 
when  they  think  of  slavery  as  perpetuated,  not  for  pub- 
lic order,  but  for  gain,  they  abhor  it,  and  would  not  lift 
a  finger  to  replace  the  flying  bondsman  beneath  the 
7* 


78  EATANCIPATION. 

yoke.  Thus  this  provision  of  the  Constitution  is  vir- 
tually fading  away  ;  and,  as  I  have  said,  no  human  pow- 
er can  restore  it.  The  moral  sentiment  of  a  community 
is  not  to  be  withstood.  Make  as  many  constitutions  as 
you  will ;  fence  round  your  laws  with  what  penalties  you 
will ;  the  universal  conscience  makes  them  as  weak  as 
the  threats  of  childhood.  There  is  a  spirit  spreading 
through  the  country  in  regard  to  slavery  which  demands 
changes  of  the  Constitution,  and  which  will  master  if  it 
cannot  change  it.  No  concerted  opposition  to  this  in- 
strument is  thought  of  or  is  needed.  No  secret  under- 
standing among  our  citizens  is  to  be  feared  at  the  South. 
The  simple  presence  to  their  minds  of  the  great  truth, 
that  man  cannot  rightfully  be  the  property  of  man,  is 
enough  to  shelter  the  slave.  With  this  conviction,  we 
are  palsy-stricken  when  called  upon  to  restore  him  to 
bondage.  Our  sinews  are  relaxed  ;  our  hands  hang 
down  ;  our  limbs  will  not  carry  us  a  step.  Now  this 
conviction  is  spreading,  and  will  become  the  established 
principle  of  the  Free  States.  Politicians,  indeed,  to  an- 
swer a  party  end,  may  talk  of  property  in  man  as  some- 
thing established  or  not  to  be  questioned  ;  but  the  peo- 
ple at  large  do  not  follow^  them.  The  people  go  with 
the  civilized  and  Christian  world.  The  South  should 
understand  this,  should  look  the  difficulty  in  the  face  ; 
and  they  will  see,  that,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  re- 
sistance is  idle,  that  neither  policy  nor  violence  can 
avail.  And,  what  is  more,  they  have  no  right  to  re- 
proach us  with  letting  this  provision  of  the  Constitution 
die  among  us.  Tkey  have  done  worse.  We  are  pas- 
sive. They  have  actively,  openly,  flagrantly,  violated 
the  Constitution.  They  have  passed  laws  threatening 
c.'  'Imprison  and  punish  the  free  colored   citizens  of  liie 


EMANCIPATION.  7§ 

North  for  exercising  the  rights  guarantied  to  every  citi- 
zen by  the  national  compact,  that  is,  for  setting  foot  on 
their  shores  and  using  their  highways.  This  wrong  has 
been  too  patiently  borne  ;  and  in  one  way  we  can  turn 
it  to  good  account.  When  reproached  with  unfaithful- 
ness to  the  Constitution,  we  can  hold  it  up  as  our  shield, 
and  cite  the  greater  disloyalty  of  the  South  as  an  ex- 
tenuation of  our  own. 

It  is  best,  however,  that  neither  party  should  be  un- 
faithful. It  is  best  that  both,  enlightened  as  to  the  spirit 
of  our  times,  should  make  new  arrangements  to  prevent 
collision,  to  define  the  duties  of  each  and  all,  to  bring 
the  Constitution  into  harmony  with  the  moral  convic- 
tions and  with  the  safety  of  North  and  South.  Until 
some  such  arrangements  are  made,  perpetual  collisions 
between  the  two  great  sections  of  our  country  must 
occur.  Notwithstanding  the  tendencies  to  a  low  tone 
of  thought  and  feeling  at  the  North  in  regard  to  slavery, 
there  is  a  decided  increase  of  moral  sensibility  on  the 
subject  ;  and  in  proportion  as  this  shall  spread  the  Free 
States  will  insist  more  strenuously  on  being  released 
from  every  obligation  to  give  support  to  what  they  de- 
liberately condemn. 

This  liberation  of  the  Free  States  from  all  connexion 
with  and  action  on  slavery  would,  indeed,  be  an  immense 
boon,  and  the  removal  of  much  dissension.  Still,  the 
root  of  bitterness  would  remain  among  us.  Still,  our 
union,  that  inestimable  political  good,  will  be  insecure. 
Slavery,  whilst  it  continues,  must  secretly,  if  not  open- 
ly, mix  with  our  policy,  sow  jealousies,  determine  the 
character  of  parties,  and  create,  if  not  diversities  of  in- 
terests, at  least  suspicions  of  them,  which  may  prove 
not  a  whit  the  less  ruinous  because  groundless. 


80  e:viancipation. 

Slavery  is  unfriendly  to  union,  as  it  is  directly  hostile 
to  the  fundamental  principle  on  which  all  our  institutions 
rest.  No  nation  can  admit  an  element  at  war  with  its 
vital,  central  law  without  losing  something  of  its  stabil- 
ity. The  idea  of  Human  Rights  is  the  grand  distinc- 
tion of  our  country.  Our  chief  boast  as  a  people  is 
found  in  the  fact,  that  the  toils,  sacrifices,  heroic  deeds 
of  our  fathers  had  for  their  end  the  establishment  of 
these.  Here  is  the  unity  which  sums  up  our  history, 
the  glory  which  lights  up  our  land,  the  chief  foundation 
of  the  sentiment  of  loyalty,  the  chief  spring  of  national 
feeling,  the  grand  bond  of  national  union  ;  and  whatever 
among  us  is  at  war  with  this  principle  w^eakens  the  living 
force  which  holds  us  together. 

On  this  topic  I  cannot  enlarge.  But  recent  events 
compel  me  to  refer  to  one  influence  more  by  which 
slavery  is  unfriendly  to  union.  It  aggravates  those  traits 
of  character  at  the  South  which  tend  to  division.  It 
inflames  that  proud,  fiery  spirit  which  is  quick  to  take 
offence,  and  which  rushes  into  rash  and  reckless  courses. 
This  ungoverned  violence  of  feeling  breaks  out  espe- 
cially in  Congress,  the  centre  from  which  impulses  are 
communicated  to  the  whole  people.  It  is  a  painful 
thought,  that,  if  any  spot  in  the  country  is  preeminent 
for  rudeness  and  fierceness,  it  is  the  Hall  of  Represent- 
atives. Too  many  of  our  legislators  seem  to  lay  down 
at  its  door  the  common  restraints  of  good  society  and 
the  character  of  gentlemen.  The  national  chamber 
seems  liable  to  become  a  national  nuisance  ;  and  although 
all  parts  of  the  country  are  in  a  measure  responsible  for 
this  wound  inflicted  on  the  honor  and  union  of  the  coun- 
try, we  do  feel  that  the  evil  is  to  be  imputed  chiefly  to 
the  proud,  impetuous   temper  of  the  South.     It  is  be- 


EMANCIPATION.  81 

lieved  that  the  personal  violences  which,  if  repeated, 
will  reduce  the  national  council  to  the  level  of  a  boxing 
match  may  be  traced  to  that  part  of  the  country.  This 
evil  is  too  notorious  to  be  softened  down  by  apologies 
or  explanations  ;  nor  is  it  less  an  evil  because  prece- 
dents and  parallels  can  be  found  in  the  legislative  bodies 
of  France  and  England.  It  tends,  not  merely  to  spread 
barbarism  through  the  community,  but  to  impair  the 
authority  of  legislation,  to  give  new  ferocity  to  the  con- 
flicts of  party,  and  thus  to  weaken  the  national  tie. 

If  slavery,  that  brand  of  discord,  were  taken  away, 
the  peculiarities  of  Northern  and  Southern  character 
would  threaten  little  or  no  evil  to  the  Union.  On  the 
contrary,  these  two  grand  divisions  of  the  country,  now 
estranged  from  each  other,  would  be  brought  near,  and 
by  acting  on  and  modifying  one  another  would  produce 
a  national  character  of  the  highest  order.  The  South, 
with  more  of  ardor  and  of  bold  and  rapid  genius,  and 
the  North,  with  more  of  wisdom  and  steady  principle, 
furnish  admirable  materials  for  a  State.  Nor  is  the  un- 
ion of  these  to  a  considerable  degree  impracticable. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  most  eminent  men  at 
the  South  have  had  a  large  infusion  of  the  Northern 
character.  Washington,  in  his  calm  dignity,  his  rigid 
order,  his  close  attention  to  business,  his  reserve  almost 
approaching  coldness,  bore  a  striking  affinity  to  the 
North  ;  and  his  sympathies  led  him  to  choose  Northern 
men  very  much  as  his  confidential  friends.  Mr.  Madi- 
son had  much  of  the  calm  wisdom,  the  patient,  studious 
research,  the  exactness  and  quiet  manner  of  our  part 
of  the  country,  with  little  of  the  imagination  and  fervor 
of  his  own.  Chief  Justice  Marshall  had  more  than 
these  two  great  men  of  the  genial,  unreserved  charac- 


82  EMANCIPATION. 

ter  of  a  warmer  climate,  but  so  blended  with  a  spirit  of 
moderation,  and  clear  judgment,  and  serene  wisdom,  as 
to  make  him  the  delight  and  confidence  of  the  whole 
land.  There  is  one  other  distinguished  name  of  the 
South,  which  I  have  not  mentioned,  Mr.  Jefferson  ; 
and  the  reason  is,  that  his  character  seemed  to  belong 
to  neither  section  of  the  country.  He  w^anted  the  fiery, 
daring  spirit  of  the  South,  and  the  calm  energy  of  the 
North.  He  stood  alone.  He  was  a  man  of  genius, 
given  to  bold,  original,  and  somewhat  visionary  specu- 
lation, and  at  the  same  time  a  sagacious  observer  of 
men  and  events.  He  owed  his  vast  influence,  second 
only  to  Washington's,  to  his  keen  insight  into  the  char- 
acter of  his  countrymen  and  into  the  spirit  of  his  age. 
His  opponents  have  set  him  down  as  the  most  unscru- 
pulous of  pohticians  ;  but  one  merit,  and  no  mean  one, 
must  be  accorded  to  him,  that  of  having  adopted  early, 
and  of  having  held  fast  through  life,  the  most  generous 
theory  of  Human  Rights,  and  of  having  protested  against 
slavery  as  an  aggravated  wrong.  In  truth,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  study  the  great  men  of  the  South,  and  to  con- 
sider the  force  of  intellect  and  character  which  that  re- 
gion has  developed,  without  feelings  of  respect,  and 
v.'lthout  the  most  ardent  desire  that  it  may  free  itself,  by 
any  means,  from  an  institution  which  aggravates  what  is 
evil  and  threatening  in  its  character,  which  cripples 
much  of  its  energy,  which  cuts  it  oft'  from  the  sympa- 
thies and  honor  of  the  civilized  world,  and  which  pre- 
vents it  from  a  true,  cordial  union  with  the  rest  of  the 
country.  It  is  slavery  which  prevents  the  two  sections 
of  country  from  acting  on  and  modifying  each  other  for 
the  good  of  both.  This  is  the  great  gulf  between  us, 
and  it  is  constantly  growing  wider  and  deeper  in  propor- 


EMANCIPATION.  83 

tion  to  the  spread  of  moral  feeling,  of  Christian  philan- 
thropy, of  respect  for  men's  rights,  of  interest  in  the 
oppressed. 

Why  is  it  that  slavery  is  not  thrown  off?     We  here 
ascribe  its  continuance  very  much  to  cupidity  and   love 
of  power.      But  there  is   another   cause,  which   is    cer- 
tainly disappearing.      Slavery  at  the  South  continues,  in 
part,  in  consequence  of  that  want  of  activity,  of  steady 
force,  of  resolute  industry  among  the   free  white   popu- 
lation, which    it    has    itself  produced.     A   people  with 
force  enough  to  attempt  a  social  revolution,  and  to  bear 
its  first  inconveniences,  would  not  endure  slavery.     We 
of  the   North,    with    our    characteristic    energy,    would 
hardly  tolerate  it  a  year.      The  sluggishness,  the  stupid- 
ity of  the  slaves  would   keep  us  in   perpetual   irritation. 
We  should  run  over  them,  tread   them   almost   uncon- 
sciously under  foot,  in  our   haste   and  eagerness   to   ac- 
complish  our  enterprises.     We   should  feel   the  waste- 
fulness of  slave   labor,   in   comparison  with  free.      The 
clumsy  mechanic,  the  lagging  house-servant,  the  sloven- 
ly laborer,  ever  ready  with  a  lying  excuse,  would  be  too 
much  for   our  patience.     Now  there  is  reason  to   think 
that  the  stirring,  earnest,  industrious  spirit  of  the  North 
is  finding  its  way  Southward  ;  and   with  this,  a   desire 
to  introduce  better   social   relations   can   hardly  be  re- 
pressed. 

We  beheve,  too,  that  this  revolution  would  be  has- 
tened, if  the  South  would  open  its  ear  to  the  working 
of  emancipation  in  other  countries,  and  to  the  deep 
interest  in  the  African  race  which  is  now  spreading 
through  the  world.  On  these  subjects  very  httle  is  yet 
known  at  the  South.  The  newspapers  there  spread 
absurd  rumors  of  the  failure  of  the  experiment  of  the 


84  EMANCIPATION. 

West  Indies,  but  the  truth  finds  no  organs.  We  doubt, 
too,  whether  one  newspaper  has  even  made  a  reference 
to  the  recent  pubKc  meeting  in  England  for  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Africa,  the  most  remarkable,  in  one  respect, 
ever  held  in  that  country  ;  for  it  was  a  representation 
of  all  ranks  and  sects,  including  the  greatest  names  in 
church  and  state,  and,  what  was  not  less  venerable,  a 
muhitude  of  both  sexes  who  have  made  themselves  dear 
and  honored  by  services  to  humanity.  Whoever  con- 
siders this,  and  other  signs  of  the  times  in  Europe,  will 
see  the  dawn  of  a  better  era,  when  the  wrongs  of  past 
ages  are  to  be  redressed,  when  the  African  is  to  be 
lifted  up,  and  the  sentence  of  moral  outlawry  is  to  be 
passed  on  the  enslavers  of  their  brethren.  Many  among 
us  are  apt  to  smile  and  say,  that  nations  have  but  one 
law,  self-interest.  But  a  new  and  higher  force  is  begin- 
ning to  act  on  human  affairs.  Religion  is  becoming  an 
active,  diffusive,  unw^earied  principle  of  humanity  and 
justice.  All  the  forces  of  Christianity  are  concentrat- 
ing themselves  into  a  fervent,  all-comprehending  phil- 
anthropy. This  is  at  length  to  be  understood  at  the 
South,  and  it  will  be  felt  there.  In  that  region  there 
are  pious  men  and  w^omen  who  will  not  endure  to  be 
cut  ofT  from  the  religious  communion  of  the  world. 
There  are  self-respecting  men,  brave  enough  to  defy  all 
personal  danger,  but  not  to  defy  the  moral  sentiment  of 
mankind.  There  are  the  wise  and  good,  who  will  re- 
joice to  learn  that  emancipation  brings  dignity  and  hap- 
piness to  the  slave,  and  safety  and  honor  to  the  free. 
Here  is  power  enough  to  put  down  the  selfish  and  un- 
principled. Here  are  influences  which,  joined  with  favor- 
ing events  from  God's  good  providence,  are,  we  trust, 
to  remove  the  wrongs  and  evils  of  slavery,  and  to  give 
us  a  right  to  hold  up  our  head  among  Christian  nations. 


EMANCIPATION.  85 

But  if  it  is  not  ordained  that  by  these  and  like  in- 
fluences this  great  wrong  is  to  be  done  away,  of  one 
thing  we  are  sure,  that  God's  righteous  providence  lacks 
not  means  for  accomplishing  his  designs.  He  has  in- 
finite ministers  for  humbling  human  pride  and  lifting  up 
the  fallen.  The  solemn  lesson  of  our  times  is  the  in- 
stabihty  of  all  human  power.  Despotic  thrones  have 
fallen,  and  surely  private  despotism  cannot  endure.  We 
learn  from  history,  that,  in  seasons  apparently  the  most 
inauspicious,  the  seeds  of  beneficent  revolutions  have 
been  sown  and  have  unfolded  in  silence.  Much  more, 
in  these  days  of  change  and  progress,  causes  must  be  at 
work  for  the  redemption  of  the  slave.  Emancipation, 
universal  freedom,  must  come.  May  God  prepare  its 
way,  not  by  earthquakes  and  storms,  but  by  "  the  still, 
small  voice  "  of  truth,  by  breathing  into  the  hearts  of 
this  people  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  justice,  and  love  ! 

It  is  a  solemn  thought,  with  which  I  close  these  re- 
marks, that  a  people  upholding  or  in  any  way  giving 
countenance  to  slavery  contract  guilt  in  proportion  to 
the  light  which  is  thrown  on  the  injustice  and  evils  of 
this  institution,  and  to  the  evidence  of  the  benefits  of 
emancipation  ;  and  if  so,  then  the  weight  of  guilt  on  this 
nation  is  great  and  increasing.  Our  fathers  carried  on 
slavery  in  much  blindness.  They  lived  and  walked 
under  the  shadow  of  a  dark  and  bloody  past.  But  the 
darkness  is  gone.  ''  The  mystery  of  iniquity  "  is  now 
laid  open.  Slavery,  from  its  birth  to  its  last  stage,  is 
now  brought  to  light.  The  wars,  the  sacked  and  burn- 
ing villages,  the  kidnapping  and  murders  of  Africa, 
which  begin  this  horrible  history  ;  the  crowded  hold,  the 
chains,  stench,  suffocation,  burning  thirst,  and  agonies 
of  the  slave-ship  ;  the  loathsome  diseases  and  enormous 

VOL.    VI.  8 


80  EMANCIPATION. 

waste  of  life  in  the  middle  passage  ;  the  wrongs  and 
sufferings  of  the  plantation,  with  its  reign  of  terror  and 
force,  its  unbridled  lust,  its  violations  of  domestic  rights 
and  charities  ;  these  all  are  revealed.  The  crimes  and 
woes  of  slavery  come  to  us  in  moans  and  shrieks  from 
the  old  world  and  the  new,  and  from  the  ocean  which 
divides  them  ;  and  we  are  distinctly  taught,  that  in  no 
other  calamity  are  such  wrongs  and  miseries  concentrated 
as  in  this.  To  put  an  end  to  some  of  these  woes,  the 
most  powerful  nations  have  endeavoured,  by  force  of 
laws  and  punishments,  to  abolish  the  slave-trade  ;  but  the 
trial  has  proved,  that,  while  slavery  endures,  the  traffic 
which  ministers  to  it  cannot  be  suppressed.  At  length 
the  axe  has  been  laid  at  the  root  of  the  accursed  tree. 
By  the  act  of  a  great  nation  nearly  a  million  of  slaves 
have  been  emancipated  ;  and  the  first  results  have  ex- 
ceeded the  hopes  of  philanthropy.  All  this  history  of 
slavery  is  given  to  the  world.  The  truth  is  brought  to 
our  very  doors.  And,  still  more,  to  iis^  above  all 
people,  God  has  made  known  those  eternal  principles 
of  freedom,  justice,  and  humanity,  by  which  the  full 
enormity  of  slavery  may  be  comprehended.  To  shut 
our  eyes  against  all  this  light  ;  to  shut  our  ears  and 
hearts  against  these  monitions  of  God,  these  pleadings 
of  humanity  ;  to  stand  forth,  in  this  great  conflict  of 
good  with  evil,  as  the  chief  upholders  of  oppression  ; 
to  array  ourselves  against  the  efforts  of  the  Christian  and 
civilized  world  for  the  extinction  of  this  greatest  wrong ; 
to  perpetuate  it  with  obstinate  madness  where  it  exists, 
and  to  make  new  regions  of  the  earth  groan  under  its 
woes  ;  this,  surely,  is  a  guilt  which  the  justice  of  God 
cannot  wink  at,  and  on  which  insulted  humanity,  re- 
ligion, and  freedom  call  down  fearful  retribution. 


EMANCIPATION.  S7 


NOTES. 


JVb/e  to  page  49. 


On  this  page  I  have  spoken  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
slaves  in  the  West  Indies  received  emancipation.  This 
great  event  took  place,  in  Antigua,  on  the  first  of  August, 
1834.  The  following  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
preceding  night  was  kept  is  extracted  from  Thome  and 
Kimball's  book  on  the  subject. 

«'  The  Wesley ans  kept  '  watch-night  '  in  all  their  chap- 
els on  the  night  of  the  31st  July.  One  of  the  Wesley  an 
missionaries  gave  us  an  account  of  the  watch-meeting  at 
the  chapel  in  St.  John's.  The  spacious  house  was  filled 
with  the  candidates  for  liberty.  All  was  animation  and 
eagerness.  A  mighty  chorus  of  voices  swelled  the  song 
of 'expectation  and^joy  ;  and  as  they  united  in  prayer,  the 
voice  of  the  leader  was  drowned  in  the  universal  acclama- 
tion of  thanksgiving,  and  praise,  and  blessing,  and  honor, 
and  glory,  to  God,  who  had  come  down  for  their  deliver- 
ance. In  such  exercises  the  evening  was  spent  until  the 
hour  of  twelve  approached.  The  missionary  then  pro- 
posed, that,  when  the  clock  on  the  cathedral  should  begin 
to  strike,  the  whole  congregation  should  fall  upon  their 
knees,  and  receive  the  boon  of  freedom  in  silence.  Ac- 
cordingly, as  the  loud  bell  tolled  its  first  note,  the  im- 
mense^ssembly  fell  prostrate  on  their  knees.  All  was 
silence,  save  the  quivering,  half-stifled  breath  of  the  strug- 
gling spirit.  The  slow  notes  of  the  clock  fell  upon  the 
multitude  ;  peal  on  peal,  peal  on  peal,  rolled  over  the  pros- 
trate throng,  in  tones  of  angels'  voices,  thrilling  among 
the  desolate  chords  and  weary  h^art-strings.      Scarce  had 


8^  EMANCIPATION. 

the  clock  sounded  its  last  note,  when  the  lightning  flashed 
vividly  around,  and  a  loud  peal  of  thunder  roared  along 
the  sky,  —  God's  pillar  of  fire,  and  trump  of  jubilee  !  A 
moment  of  profoundest  silence  passed, — then  came  the 
burst, — they  broke  forth  in  prayer;  they  shouted,  they 
sung,  'Glory!'  'Alleluia!'  they  clapped  their  hands, 
leaped  up,  fell  down,  clasped  each  other  in  their  free 
arms,  cried,  laughed,  and  went  to  and  fro,  tossing  upward 
their  unfettered  hands  ;  but  high  above  the  whole  there 
was  a  mighty  sound  which  ever  and  anon  swelled  up  ;  it 
was  the  utterings,  in  broken  Negro  dialect,  of  gratitude  to 
God. 

"  After  this  gush  of  excitement  had  spent  itself,  and  the 
congreo-ation  became  calm,  the  religious  exercises  were 
resumed,  and  the  remainder  of  the  night  was  occupied  in 
singing  and  prayer,  in  reading  the  Bible,  and  in  addresses 
from  the  missionaries,  explaining  the  nature  of  the  free- 
dom just  received,  and  exhorting  the  free  people  to  be  in- 
dustrious, steady,  obedient  to  the  laws,  and  to  show  them- 
selves in  all  things  worthy  of  the  high  boon  which  God  had 
conferred  upon  them." 


JVote  to  page  52. 

On  reading  to  a  friend  my  remarks  on  the  African 
character,  he  observed  to  me,  that  similar  views  had  been 
taken  by  Alexander  Kinmont,  in  his  "Lectures  on  Man  : 
Cincinnati,  IS'SO."  This  induced  me  to  examine  the  Lec- 
tures ;  and  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  finding,  not  only  a 
coincidence  of  opinions,  but  that  the  author  had  pursued 
the  subject  much  more  thoroughly,  and  illustrated  it  with 
much  strength  and  beauty.  I  would  recommend  this  work 
to  such  as  delight  in  bold  and  original  thinking.  The 
reader,  indeed,  will  often  question  the  soundness  of  the 
author's  conclusions  ;  but  even  in  these  cases  the  mind 
will  be  waked  up  to  great  and  interesting  subjects  of  re- 
flection. I  will  subjoin  a  few  extracts  relating  to  the 
African  character. 


EJMANCIPATIOxN.  89 

«'  When  the  epoch  of  the  civilization  of  the  Negro 
family  arrives,  in  the  lapse  of  ages,  they  will  display  in 
their  native  land  some  very  peculiar  and  interesting  traits 
of  character,  of  which  we,  a  distinct  branch  of  the  human 
family,  can   at  present  form  no  conception.     It  will   be, 

indeed,  it  must  be,  —  a  civilization  of  a  peculiar  stamp  ; 

perhaps,  we  might  venture  to  conjecture,  not  so  much 
distinguished  by  art,  as  a  certain  beautiful  nature  ;  not  so 
marked  or  adorned  by  science,  as  exalted  and  refined  by 
a  new  and  lovely  theology,  —  a  reflection  of  the  light  of 
heaven  more  perfect  and  endearing  than  that  which  the 
intellects  of  the  Caucasian  race  have  ever  yet  exhibited. 
There  is  more  of  the  child,  of  unsophisticated  nature,  in 
the  Negro  race  than  in  the  European."  —  p.  190. 

"The  peninsula  of  Africa  is  the  home  of  the  Negro, 
€ind  the  appropriate  and  destined  seat  of  his  future  glory 
and  civilization,  —  a  civilization  which,  we  need  not  fear 
to  predict,  will  be  as  distinct  in  all  its  features  from  that 
of  all  other  races  as  his  complexion  and  natural  tempera- 
ment and  genius  are  different.  But  v.'ho  can  doubt  that 
here,  also,  humanity  in  its  more  advanced  and  millennial 
stage  will  reflect,  under  a  sweet  and  mellow  light,  the 
softer  attributes  of  the  Divine  beneficence  ?  If  the  Cau- 
casian race  is  destined,  as  would  appear  from  the  pre- 
cocity of  their  genius,  and  their  natural  quickness  and  ex- 
treme aptitude  to  the  arts,  to  reflect  the  lustre  of  the 
Divine  wisdom,  or,  to  speak  more  properly,  the  Divine 
science,  shall  we  envy  the  Negro,  if  a  later  but  far  nobler 
civilization  await  him, — to  return  the  splendor  of  the 
Divine  attributes  of  mercy  and  benevolence  in  the  prac- 
tice and  exhibition  of  all  the  milder  and  gentler  virtues  .^  " 
—  p.  191. 

"If  there  are  fewer  vivid  manifestations  of  intellect  in 
the  Negro  family  than  in  the  Caucasian,  as  I  am  disposed 
to  believe,  does  that  forbid  the  hope  of  the  return  of  that 
pure  and  gentle  state  of  society  among  them  which  at- 
tracts the  peculiar  regard  of  Heaven  .''  "  —  p.  192. 

"  The  sweeter  graces  of  the  Christian  religion  appear 
almost  too  tropical  and  tender  plants  to  grow  in  the  soil 
of  the  Caucasian  mind  ;  they  require  a  character  of  hu- 
man nature,  of  which  you  can  see  the  rude  lineaments  in 
the  Ethiopian,  to  be  implanted  in,  and  grow  naturally  and 
beautifully  withal."  — p.  218. 

8^ 


A 

DISCOURSE 

ON 
THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE 

REV.  JOSEPH    TUCKERMAN,  D.  D., 

DELIVERED   AT  THE 

WARREN-STREET  CHAPEL,  ON  SUNDAY  EVENING, 
January  31,  1841. 


DISCOURSE 


Five  years  ago  this  Chapel  was  dedicated .  to  the 
moral  and  religious  instruction  of  the  poor  of  this  city. 
This  event  makes  no  noise  in  history,  and  may  seem  to 
some  to  merit  no  particular  notice.  It  is  remembered, 
however,  by  not  a  few  individuals  and  famihes,  as  the 
beginning  of  many  good  influences.  Still  more,  it  is 
not  an  event  which  stands  alone.  This  Chapel  is  the 
sign  of  an  important  movement,  which  is  not  soon  to 
pass  away.  It  sprung  from  the  labors  of  that  faithful 
servant  of  God  to  whom  we  owe  the  establishment  of 
the  Ministry  at  Large  in  this  place.  It  is  intimately 
connected  with,  and  reveals  to  us,  his  hfe  and  labors  ; 
and  accordingly,  the  anniversary  of  its  dedication  to  re- 
ligious services  is  a  fit  occasion  for  ofl^ering  a  tribute  to 
his  memory.  I  have  wished,  ever  since  his  removal,  to 
express  my  reverence  for  his  character,  and  my  sense 
of  the  greatness  of  his  work.  To  these  topics  I  invite 
your  attention.  But  before  entering  on  them  I  propose 
to  consider  a  more  general  subject,  which  w^as  often  on 
the  lips  of  our  departed  friend,  to  which  he  constantly 
recurred  in  his  wrhings,  and  on  the  comprehension  of 
which  the  permanence  of  the  Ministry  at  Large  chiefly 
depends.  This  subject  is,  the  obligation  of  a  city  to 
care  for  and  watch  over  the  moral  health  of  its  mem- 


94  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

bers,  and  especially  to  watch  over  the  moral  safety  and 
elevation  of  its  poorer  and  more  exposed  classes.  The 
life  of  our  departed  friend  embodied  and  expressed  this 
truth  with  singular  power,  and  the  consideration  of  it 
is  a  natural  and  fit  introduction  to  a  memorial  of  his 
virtues  and  labors,  as  well  as  particularly  adapted  to  the 
occasion  which  has  brought  us  together. 

Why  is  it,  my  friends,  that  we  are  brought  so  near  to 
one  another  in  cities  ?  It  is,  that  nearness  should 
awaken  sympathy  ;  that  multiplying  wants  should  knit 
us  more  closely  together  ;  that  we  should  understand 
one  another's  perils  and  sufferings  ;  that  we  should  act 
perpetually  on  one  another  for  good.  Why  were  we 
not  brought  into  being  in  solitudes,  endowed  each  with 
the  power  of  satisfying  to  the  full  his  particular  wants  ? 
God  has  room  enough  for  a  universe  of  separate,  lone- 
ly, silent  beings,  of  selfish,  unshared  enjoyment.  But, 
through  the  whole  range  of  nature,  we  find  nothing  in- 
sulated, nothing  standing  alone.  Union  is  the  law  of 
his  creation.  Even  matter  is  an  emblem  of  universal 
sympathy,  for  all  its  particles  tend  towards  one  another, 
and  its  great  masses  are  bound  into  one  system  by 
mutual  attraction.  How  much  more  was  the  human 
race  made  for  sympathy  and  mutual  aid  !  How  plain 
is  the  social  destination  of  man  !  born,  as  he  is,  into 
the  arms  of  love,  sustained  from  the  beginning  by  hu- 
man kindness,  endowed  with  speech,  and  plunged  among 
fellow-beings  to  whose  feelings  he  cannot  but  respond, 
into  whose  hearts  he  yearns  to  pour  his  own,  and  whose 
rights,  feelings,  and  interests  are  commended  to  his  re- 
gard by  a  law  of  love  and  justice  written  within  him  by 
a  Divine  hand.     Can  we  ask  why  such  beings  are  gath- 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  95 

ered  into  cities  ?  Is  it  not,  that  they  should  propose  a 
common  weal  ?  Is  it  not,  that  they  should  desire  and 
seek  each  other's  highest  good  ?  What  is  the  happiest 
community  ?  What  the  city  which  should  be  chosen 
above  all  others  as  our  home  ?  It  is  that  the  members 
of  which  form  one  body,  in  which  no  class  seeks  a  mo- 
nopoly of  honor  or  good,  in  which  no  class  is  a  prey 
to  others,  in  which  there  is  a  general  desire  that  every 
human  being  may  have  opportunity  to  develope  his 
powers.  What  is  the  happiest  community  .''  It  is  not 
that  in  which  the  goods  of  life  are  accumulated  in  a  few 
hands,  in  which  property  sinks  a  great  gulf  between  dif- 
ferent ranks,  in  which  one  portion  of  society  swells  with 
pride,  and  the  other  is  broken  in  spirit  ;  but  a  commu- 
nity in  which  labor  is  respected,  and  the  means  of  com- 
fort and  improvement  are  liberally  diffused.  It  is  not 
a  community  in  which  intelligence  is  developed  in  a 
few,  whilst  the  many  are  given  up  to  ignorance,  super- 
stition, and  a  gross  animal  existence  ;  but  one  in  which 
the  mind  is  so  reverenced  in  every  condition  that  the 
opportunities  of  its  culture  are  afforded  to  all.  It  is  a 
community  in  which  religion  is  not  used  to  break  the 
many  into  subjection,  but  is  dispensed  even  to  the 
poorest,  to  rescue  them  from  the  degrading  influence  of 
poverty,  to  give  them  generous  sentiments  and  hopes,  to 
exalt  them  from  animals  into  men,  into  Christians,  into 
children  of  God.  This  is  a  happy  community,  where 
human  nature  is  held  in  honor  ;  where,  to  rescue  it  from 
ignorance  and  crime,  to  give  it  an  impulse  towards 
knowledge,  virtue,  and  happiness,  is  thought  the  chief 
end  of  the  social  union. 

It  is  the  unhappiness  of  most  large   cities,  that,  in- 
stead  of  this  union  and  sympathy,  they  consist  of  dif- 


96  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CH.^ACTER 

ferent  ranks  so  widely  separated  as,  indeed,  to  form 
different  communities.  In  most  large  cities  there  may- 
be said  to  be  two  nations,  understanding  as  little  of  one 
another,  having  as  little  intercourse,  as  if  they  lived  in 
different  lands.  In  such  a  city  as  London  the  distance 
of  a  few  streets  only  will  carry  you  from  one  stage  of 
civilization  to  another,  from  the  excess  of*refinement  to 
barbarism,  from  the  abodes  of  cultivated  intellect  to 
brutal  ignorance,  from  what  is  called  fashion  to  the 
grossest  manners  ;  and  these  distinct  communities  know 
comparatively  nothing  of  each  other.  There  are  trav- 
ellers from  that  great  city  who  come  to  visit  our  Indians, 
but  who  leave  at  home  a  community  as  essentially  bar- 
barous as  that  which  t'hey  seek,  who,  perhaps,  have 
spent  all  their  lives  in  the  midst  of  it,  giving  it  no 
thought.  To  these  travellers  a  hovel  in  one  of  the  sub- 
urbs which  they  have  left  would  be  as  strange  a  place 
as  the  wigwam  of  our  own  forests.  They  know  as  lit- 
tle what  thousands  of  their  own  city  suffer,  to  what  ex- 
tremities thousands  are  reduced,  by  what  arts  thousands 
live,  as  they  know  of  the  modes  of  life  in  savage  tribes. 
How  much  more  useful  lessons  would  they  learn,  and 
how  much  holier  feelings  would  be  awakened  in  them, 
were  they  to  penetrate  the  dens  of  want,  and  woe,  and 
crime,  a  kw  steps  from  their  own  door,  than  they  gain 
from  exploring  this  new  world  !  And  what  I  say  of 
London  is  true  also  of  this  city  in  a  measure.  Not  a 
few  grow  up  and  die  here  without  understanding  how 
multitudes  live  and  die  around  them,  without  having  de- 
scended into  the  damp  cellar  where  childhood  and  old 
age  spend  day  and  night,  winter  and  summer,  or  with- 
out scaling  the  upper  room  which  contains  within  its 
narrow  and   naked  walls,   not   one,   but   two  and   even 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  97 

three  families.  They  see  the  poor  in  the  street,  but 
never  follow  them  in  thought  to  their  cheerless  homes, 
or  ask  how  the  long  day  is  filled  up.  They  travel,  in 
books  at  least,  to  distant  regions,  among  nations  of  dif- 
ferent languages  and  complexions,  but  are  strangers  to 
the  condition  and  character  of  masses  who  speak  their 
native  tongue,  live  under  their  eye,  and  are  joined  with 
them  for  weal  or  woe  in  the  same  social  state.  This 
estrangement  of  men  from  men,  of  class  from  class,  is 
one  of  the  saddest  features  of  a  great  city.  It  shows 
that  the  true  bond  of  communities  is  as  yet  imperfectly 
known. 

The  happy  community  is  that  in  which  its  members 
care  for  one  another,  and  in  which  there  is,  especially, 
an  interest  in  the  intellectual  and  moral  improvement  of 
all.  That  sympathy  which  provides  for  the  outward 
wants  of  all,  which  sends  supplies  to  the  poor  man's 
house,  is  a  blessed  fruit  of  Christianity  ;  and  it  is  happy 
when  this  prevails  in  and  binds  together  a  city.  But 
we  have  now  learned  that  the  poor  are  not  to  be  essen- 
tially, permanently  aided  by  the  mere  relief  of  bodily 
wants.  We  are  learning  that  the  greatest  efforts  of  a 
community  should  be  directed,  not  to  relieve  indigence, 
but  to  dry  up  its  sources,  to  supply  moral  wants,  to 
spread  purer  principles  and  habits,  to  remove  the  temp- 
tations to  intemperance  and  sloth,  to  snatch  the  child 
from  moral  perdition,  and  to  make  the  man  equal  to  his 
own  support  by  awakening  in  him  the  spirit  and  the 
powers  of  a  man.  The  glory  and  happiness  of  a  com- 
munity consists  in  vigorous  efforts,  springing  from  love, 
sustained  by  faith,  for  the  diffusion,  through  all  classes, 
of  intelligence,  of  self-respect,  of  self-control,  of  thirst 
for    knowledge,    and    for    moral  and    religious    growth. 

VOL.    VI.  9 


98  DISCOURSE  ON  TIIE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

Here  is  the  first  end,  the  supreme  interest,  which  a 
community  should  propose,  and  in  achieving  it  all  other 
interests  are  accomplished. 

It  is  a  plain  truth,  and  yet  how  little  understood  !  that 
the  greatest  thing  in  a  city  is  Man  himself.  He  is  its 
end.  We  admire  its  palaces  ;  but  the  mechanic  who 
builds  them  is  greater  than  palaces.  Human  nature,  in 
its  lowest  form,  in  the  most  abject  child  of  want,  is  of 
more  worth  than  all  outward  improvements.  You  talk 
of  the  prosperity  of  your  city.  I  know  but  one  true 
prosperity.  Does  the  human  soul  grow  and  prosper 
here  ?  Do  not  point  me  to  your  thronged  streets.  T 
ask.  Who  throng  them  ?  Ts  it  a  low-minded,  self- 
seeking,  gold-worshipping,  man-despising  crowd,  which 
I  see  rushing  through  them  ?  Do  I  meet  in  them,  un- 
der the  female  form,  the  gayly-decked  prostitute,  or  the 
idle,  wasteful,  aimless,  profitless  woman  of  fashion  ? 
Do  I  meet  the  young  man  showing  off  his  pretty  person 
as  the  perfection  of  nature's  works,  wasting  his  golden 
hours  in  dissipation  and  sloth,  and  bearing  in  his  counte- 
nance and  gaze  the  marks  of  a  profligate  ?  Do  I  meet 
a  grasping  multitude,  seeking  to  thrive  by  concealments 
and  frauds  ?  an  anxious  multitude,  driven  by  fear  of 
want  to  doubtful  means  of  gain  ?  an  unfeeling  multitude, 
caring  nothing  for  others,  if  they  may  themselves  pros- 
per or  enjoy  ?  In  the  neighbourhood  of  your  comfort- 
able or  splendid  dwellings  are  there  abodes  of  squalid 
misery,  of  reckless  crime,  of  bestial  intemperance,  of 
half-famished  childhood,  of  profaneness,  of  dissoluteness, 
of  temptation  for  thoughtless  youth  ?  And  are  these 
multiplying  with  your  prosperity,  and  outstripping  and 
neutralizing  the  influences  of  truth  and  virtue  ?  Then 
your  prosperity  is  a  vain  show.     Its  true  use  is,  to  make 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  99 

a  better  people.  \The  glory  and  happiness  of  a  city  v 
consist  not  in  the  number,  but  the  character,  of  its 
population.  Of  all  the  fine  arts  in  a  city,  the  grandest 
is  the  art  of  forming  noble  specimens  of  humanity.  The 
costliest  productions  of  our  manufactures  are  cheap,  com- 
pared with  a  wise  and  good  human  being.  \  A  city  which 
should  practically  adopt  the  principle,  that  man  is  worth 
more  than  wealth  or  show,  would  gain  an  impulse  that 
would  place  it  at  the  head  of  cities.  A  city  in  which 
men  should  be  trained  worthy  of  the  name  w^ould  be- 
come the  metropolis  of  the  earth. 

God  has  prospered  us,  and,  as  we  believe,  is  again 
to  prosper  us,  in  our  business  ;  and  let  us  show  our 
gratitude  by  inquiring  for  what  end  prosperity  is  given, 
and  how  it  may  best  accomplish  the  end  of  the  Giver. 
Let  us  use  it  to  give  a  higher  character  to  our  city,  to 
send  refining,  purifying  influences  through  every  depart- 
ment of  life.  Let  us  especially  use  it  to  multiply  good 
influences  in  those  classes  which  are  most  exposed  to 
temptation.  Let  us  use  it  to  prevent  the  propagation  of 
crime  from  parent  to  child.  I^et  us  use  it  in  behalf  of 
those  in  whom  our  nature  is  most  depressed,  and  who, 
if  neglected,  will  probably  bring  on  themselves  the  arm 
of  penal  law.  Nothing  is  so  just  a  cause  of  self-respect 
in  a  city  as  the  healthy,  moral  condition  of  those  who 
are  most  exposed  to  crime.  This  is  the  best  proof  that 
the  prosperous  classes  are  wise,  intelligent,  and  w^orthy 
of  their  prosperity.  Crime  is  to  the  state  what  danger- 
ous disease  is  to  the  human  frame,  and  to  expel  it  should 
be  to  the  community  an  object  of  the  deepest  concern. 
This  topic  is  so  important  that  I  cannot  leave  it  with- 
out urging  it  on  your  serious  thoughts. 

Society  has  hitherto  employed  its  energy  chiefly  to 


100  DISCODKSE  ON   THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

punish  crime.  It  is  infinitely  more  important  to  prevent 
it  ;  and  this  I  say  not  for  the  sake  of  those  alone  on 
whom  the  criminal  preys.  I  do  not  think  only  or  chiefly 
of  those  who  suffer  from  crime.  I  plead  also,  and  plead 
more,  for  those  who  perpetrate  it.  In  moments  of 
clear,  calm  thought  I  feel  more  for  the  wrong-doer  than 
for  him  who  is  wronged.  In  a  case  of  theft,  incompara- 
bly the  most  wretched  man  is  he  who  steals,  not  he  who 
is  robbed.  The  innocent  are  not  undone  by  acts  of  vi- 
olence or  fraud  from  which  they  suffer.  They  are  in- 
nocent, though  injured.  They  do  not  bear  the  brand  of 
infamous  crime ;  and  no  language  can  express  the  import 
of  this  distinction.  When  I  visit  the  cell  of  a  convict, 
and  see  a  human  being  who  has  sunk  beneath  his  race, 
who  is  cast  out  by  his  race,  whose  name  cannot  be  pro- 
nounced in  his  home,  or  can  be  pronounced  only  to 
start  a  tear,  who  has  forfeited  the  confidence  of  every 
friend,  who  has  lost  that  spring  of  virtue  and  effort,  the 
hope  of  esteem,  whose  conscience  is  burdened  with  ir- 
reparable guilt,  who  has  hardened  himself  against  the  ap- 
peals of  religion  and  love,  here,  here  I  see  a  Ruin.  The 
man  whom  he  has  robbed  or  murdered,  how  much  hap- 
/  pier  than  he  !  What  I  want  is,  not  merely  that  society 
should  protect  itself  against  crime,  but  that  it  shall  do 
all  that  it  can  to  preserve  its  exposed  members  from 
crime,  and  so  do  for  the  sake  of  these  as  truly  as  for  its 
own.  >  It  should  not  suffer  human  nature  to  fall  so  deep- 
ly, so  terribly,  if  the  ruin  can  be  avoided.  Society 
ought  not  to  breed  Monsters  in  its  bosom.  If  it  will 
not  use  its  prosperity  to  save  the  ignorant  and  poor  from 
the  blackest  vice,  if  it  will  even  quicken  vice  by  its 
selfishness  and  luxury,  its  worship  of  wealth,  its  scorn 
of  human  nature,  then  it  must  suffer,  and  deserves  to 
suffer,  from  crime. 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  IQl 

I  would  that,  as  a  city,  we  might  understand  and  feel 
how  far  we  are  chargeable  with  much  of  the  crime  and 
misery  around  us  of  which  we  complain.  Is  it  not  an 
acknowledged  moral  truth,  that  we  are  answerable  for 
all  evil  which  we  are  able,  but  have  failed,  to  prevent  ? 
Were  Providence  to  put  us  in  possession  of  a  remedy 
for  a  man  dying  at  our  feet,  and  should  we  withhold  it, 
would  not  the  guilt  of  his  death  lie  at  our  door  ?  Are 
we  not  accessory  to  the  destruction  of  the  blind  man 
who  in  our  sight  approaches  a  precipice  and  whom  we 
do  not  warn  of  his  danger  ?  On  the  same  ground  much 
of  the  guilt  and  misery  around  us  must  be  imputed  to 
ourselves.  Why  is  it  that  so  many  children  in  a  large 
city  grow  up  in  ignorance  and  vice  ?  Because  that  city 
abandons  them  to  ruinous  influences,  from  which  it  might 
and  ought  to  rescue  them.  Why  is  beggary  so  often 
transmitted  from  parent  to  child  ?  Because  the  public, 
and  because  individuals,  do  Httle  or  nothing  to  break  the 
fatal  inheritance.  Whence  come  many  of  the  darkest 
crimes  ?  From  despondency,  recklessness,  and  a  press- 
ure of  suffering  which  sympathy  would  have  lightened. 
Human  sympathy.  Christian  sympathy,  were  it  to  pene- 
trate the  dwellings  of  the  ignorant,  poor,  and  suffering, 
were  its  voice  lifted  up  to  encourage,  guide,  and  con- 
sole, and  its  arm  stretched  out  to  sustain,  what  a  new 
world  would  it  call  into  being  !  What  a  new  city  should 
we  live  in  !  How  many  victims  of  stern  justice  would 
become  the  living,  joyful  witnesses  of  the  regenerating 
power  of  a  wise  Christian  love  ! 

In  these  remarks  I  have  expressed  sympathy  with  the 

criminal ;  but  do  not  imagine  that  I  have  any  desire  to 

screen  him   from  that  wise  punishment  which  aims  at 

once   to    reform    ofl^enders    and   protect    society.     The 

9* 


102  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

mercy  which  would  turn  aside  the  righteous  penahies  of 
law  is,  however  unconsciously,  a  form  of  cruelty.  As 
friends  of  the  tempted  part  of  the  community  we  should 
make  the  escape  of  the  criminal  next  to  hopeless.  But 
let  not  society  stop  here.  Let  it  use  every  means  in  its 
power  of  rescuing  its  members  from  the  degradation  and 
misery  of  crime  and  pubhc  punishment.  Let  it  especially 
protect  the  exposed  child.  Here  is  a  paramount  duty 
which  no  community  has  yet  fulfilled.  If  the  child  be 
left  to  grow  up  in  utter  ignorance  of  duty,  of  its  Maker, 
of  its  relation  to  society,  to  grow  up  in  an  atmosphere 
of  profaneness  and  intemperance,  and  in  the  practice  of 
falsehood  and  fraud,  let  not  the  community  complain  of 
his  crime.  It  has  quietly  looked  on  and  seen  him,  year 
after  year,  arming  himself  against  its  order  and  peace  ; 
and  who  is  most  to  blame,  when  at  last  he  deals  the 
guilty  blow  ?  A  moral  care  over  the  tempted  and  igno- 
rant portion  of  the  state  is  a  primary  duty  of  society .y 

I  know  that  objection  will  be  made  to  this  representa- 
tion of  duty.  It  will  be  said  by  not  a  iew^  ''  We  have 
not  time  to  take  care  of  others.  We  do  our  part  in  tak- 
ing care  of  ourselves  and  our  families.  Let  every  man 
watch  over  his  own  household,  and  society  will  be  at 
peace." 

T  reply.  First,  this  defence  is  not  founded  in  truth. 
Very  few  can  honestly  say,  that  they  have  no  time  or 
strength  to  spend  beyond  their  famihes.  How  much 
time,  thought,  wealth,  strength,  is  wasted,  absolutely 
wasted,  by  a  large  proportion  of  every  people  !  Were 
the  will  equal  to  the  power,  were  there  a  fraternal  con- 
cern for  the  falling  and  fallen  members  of  the  com- 
munity, what  an  amount  of  energy  would  be  spent  in 
redeeming  society  from  its  terrible  evils,  without  the 
slightest  diminution  of  exertion  at  home  ! 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  103 

But,  Still  more,  we  defeat  ourselves,  when  we  neglect 
the  moral  state  of  the  city  where  we  live,  under  pre- 
tence of  caring  for  our  families.  How  little  may  it 
profit  you,  my  friends,  that  you  labor  at  home,  if  in  the 
next  street,  amidst  haunts  of  vice,  the  incendiary,  the 
thief,  the  ruffian,  is  learning  his  lesson  or  preparing  his 
instruments  of  destruction  !  How  little  may  it  profit 
you  that  you  are  striving  to  educate  your  children,  if 
around  you  the  children  of  others  are  neglected,  are 
contaminated  with  evil  principles  or  impure  passions  ! 
Where  is  it  that  our  sons  often  receive  the  most  power- 
ful impulses  ?  In  the  street,  at  school,  from  associates. 
Their  ruin  may  be  sealed  by  a  young  female  brought  up 
in  the  haunts  of  vice.  Their  first  oaths  may  be  echoes 
of  profaneness  which  they  hear  from  the  sons  of  the 
abandoned.  What  is  the  great  obstruction  to  our  efforts 
for  educating  our  children  ?  It  is  the  corruption  around 
us.  That  corruption  steals  into  our  homes,  and  neutral- 
izes the  influence  of  home.  We  hope  to  keep  our  Httle 
circle  pure  amidst  general  impurity.  This  is  like  striv- 
ing to  keep  our  particular  houses  healthy,  when  infection 
is  raging  around  us.  If  an  accumulation  of  filth  in  our 
neighbourhood  were  sending  forth  foul  stench  and  pesti- 
lential vapors  on  every  side,  we  should  not  plead,  as  a 
reason  for  letting  it  remain,  that  we  were  striving  to 
prevent  a  like  accumulation  within  our  ovvn  doors.  Dis- 
ease would  not  less  certainly  invade  us  because  the 
source  of  it  was  not  prepared  by  ourselves.  The  in- 
fection of  moral  evil  is  as  perilous  as  that  of  the  plague. 
We  have  a  personal  interest  in  the  prevalence  of  order 
and  good  principles  on  every  side.  If  any  member  of 
the  social  body  suffer,  all  must  suffer  with  it.  This  is 
God's  ordination,  and  his  merciful  ordination.     It  is  thus 


104  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

that  he  .summons  us  to  watch  over  our  brother  for  his 
good.  In  this  city,  where  the  children  are  taught  chiefly 
in  public  schools,  all  parents  have  peculiar  reason  for 
seeking  that  all  classes  of  society  be  improved. 

Let  me  add  one  more  reply  to  the  excuse  for  neglect- 
ing others  drawn  from  the  necessity  of  attending  to  our 
own  families.  True,  we  must  attend  to  our  families  \ 
but  what  is  the  great  end  which  we  should  propose  in 
regard  to  our  children  ^  Is  it  to  train  them  up  for  them- 
selves only  }  to  shut  them  up  in  their  own  pleasures  ^ 
to  give  them  a  knowledge  by  which  they  may  serve  their 
private  interests  }  Should  it  not  be  our  first  care  to 
breathe  into  them  the  spirit  of  Christians  }  to  give  them 
a  generous  interest  in  our  race  ?  to  fit  them  to  live  and 
to  die  for  their  fellow-beings  .''  Is  not  this  the  true 
education  }  And  can  we,  then,  educate  them  better 
than  by  giving  them,  in  our  own  persons,  examples  of  a 
true  concern  for  our  less  prosperous  fellow-creatures  .'' 
Should  not  our  common  tones  awaken  in  them  sympathy 
with  the  poor,  and  ignorant,  and  depraved  .''  Should  not 
the  influences  of  home  fit  them  to  go  forth  as  the  bene- 
factors of  their  race  }  This  is  a  Christian  education. 
This  is  worth  all  accomplishments.  Give  to  society  a 
generous,  disinterested  son  or  daughter,  and  you  will 
pay  with  interest  the  debt  you  owe  it.  Blessed  is  that 
home  where  such  members  are  formed,  to  be  heads  of 
future  families  and  fountains  of  pure  influence  to  the 
communities  of  which  they  form  a  part.  In  this  respect 
our  education  is  most  deficient.  Whilst  we  pay  pro- 
fusely for  superficial  accomplishments,  very  little  is  done 
to  breathe  a  noble,  heroic,  self-sacrificing  spirit  into  the 
young. 

In  reply  to  these  remarks,  ill-boding  skepticism  will 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  105 

cry  out,  "  Why  all  this  labor  ?  Society  cannot  be  im- 
proved. Its  evils  cannoi  be  done  away."  But  this 
croaking  has  httle  significance  to  one  who  believes  in 
Christ,  the  divinely  ordained  Regenerator  of  the  world, 
and  who  compares,  in  the  light  of  history,  the  present 
with  past  times.  On  these  authorities,  I  maintain  that 
society  can  be  improved.  I  am  confident  that  this  city 
would  become  a  new  place,  a  new  creation,  were  the 
intelligent  and  good  to  seek  in  earnest  to  spread  their  in- 
telligence and  goodness.  We  have  powers  enough  here 
for  a  mighty  change,  were  they  faithfully  used.  I  would 
add,  that  God  permits  evils  for  this  very  end,  that  they 
should  be  resisted  and  subdued.  He  intends  that  this 
world  shall  grow  better  and  happier,  not  through  his  own 
immediate  agency,  but  through  the  labors  and  sufferings 
of  benevolence.  This  world  is  left,  in  a  measure,  to 
the  power  of  evil,  that  it  should  become  a  monument,  a 
trophy,  to  the  power  of  goodness.  The  greatness  of 
its  crimes  and  woes  is  not  a  ground  for  despair,  but  a 
call  to  greater  effort.  On  our  earth  the  divine  Philan- 
thropist has  begun  a  war  with  evil.  His  cross  is  erected 
to  gather  together  soldiers  for  the  conflict,  and  victory 
is  written  in  his  blood.  The  spirit  which  Jesus  Christ 
breathes  has  already  proved  itself  equal  to  this  warfare. 
How  much  has  it  already  done  to  repress  ferocity  in 
Christian  nations,  to  purify  domestic  hfe,  to  abolish  or 
mitigate  slavery,  to  provide  asylums  for  disease  and 
want  !  These  are  but  its  first  fruits.  In  the  progress 
already  made  by  communities  under  its  influences  we  are 
taught  that  society  is  not  destined  to  repeat  itself  per- 
petually, to  stand  still  for  ever.  We  learn  that  great 
cities  need  not  continue  to  be  sinks  of  pollution.  No 
man  has  seized  the  grand  peculiarity  of  the  present  age 


106  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHAEACTER 

who  does  not  see  in  it  the  means  and  material  of  a  vast 
and  beneficent  social  change.  The  revolution  which  we 
are  called  to  advance  has,  in  truth,  begun.  The  great 
distinction  of  our  times  is  a  diffusion  of  intelligence,  and 
refinement,  and  of  the  spirit  of  progress,  through  a  vast- 
ly wider  sphere  than  formerly.  The  middle  and  labor- 
ing classes  have  means  of  improvement  not  dreamed  of 
in  earlier  times.  x\nd  why  stop  here  ?  Why  not  in- 
crease these  means  where  now  enjoyed  ?  Why  not 
extend  them  where  they  are  not  possessed  ?  Why  shall 
any  portion  of  the  community  be  deprived  of  light,  of 
sympathy,  of  the  aids  by  which  they  may  rise  to  com- 
fort and  virtue  ? 

At  the  present  moment  it  ,is  singularly  unreasonable 
to  doubt  and  despair  of  the  improvement  of  society. 
Providence  is  placing  before  our  eyes,  in  broad  light, 
the  success  of  efforts  for  the  melioration  of  human  af- 
fairs. I  might  refer  to  the  change  produced  among  our- 
selves, within  a  few  years,  by  the  exertions  of  good  men 
for  the  suppression  of  intemperance,  the  very  vice  which 
seemed  the  most  inveterate,  and  which  more  than  all 
others  spreads  poverty  and  crime.  But  this  moral  re- 
volution in  our  own  country  sinks  into  nothing,  when 
compared  with  the  amazing  and  almost  incredible  work 
now^  in  progress  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean.  A  few 
years  ago,  had  we  been  called  to  name  the  country  of 
all  others  most  degraded,  beggared,  and  hopelessly 
crushed,  by  intemperance,  we  should  have  selected 
Ireland.  There  men  and  women,  old  and  young,  were 
alike  swept  away  by  what  seemed  the  irresistible  tor- 
rent. Childhood  was  baptized  into  drunkenness.  And 
now,  in  the  short  space  of  two  or  three  years,  this  vice 
of  ages  has  almost  been  rooted  out.     In  a  moral  point 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  107 

of  view,  the  Ireland  of  the  past  is  vanished.  A  new 
Ireland  has  started  into  life.  Three  millions  of  her 
population  have  taken  the  pledge  of  total  abstinence,  and 
instances  of  violating  the  pledge  are  very,  very  rare. 
The  great  national  anniversaries,  on  which  the  whole 
laboring  population  used  to  be  dissolved  in  excess,  are 
now  given  to  innocent  pleasures.  The  excise  on  ardent 
spirits  has  now  been  diminished  nearly  half  a  million 
sterling.  History  records  no  revolution  like  this.  It  is 
the  grand  event  of  the  present  day.  Father  Matthew, 
the  leader  in  this  moral  revolution,  ranks  far  above  the 
heroes  and  statesmen  of  the  times.  As  Protestants, 
we  smile  at  the  old  legends  of  the  Cathohc  Church  ; 
but  here  is  something  greater,  and  it  is  true.  However 
we  may  question  the  claims  of  her  departed  saints,  she 
has  a  living  minister,  If  he  may  be  judged  from  one 
work,  who  deserves  to  be  canonized,  and  whose  name 
should  be  placed  in  the  calendar  not  far  below  Apos- 
tles. And  is  this  an  age  in  which  to  be  skeptical  as  to 
radical  changes  in  society,  as  to  the  recovery  of  the 
mass  of  men  from  brutal  ignorance  and  still  more  brutal 
vice  ? 

The  remarks  which  have  now  been  made  are  needed 
at  the  present  moment.  Our  city  is  growing,  and  we 
are  impatient  for  its  more  rapid  growth,  as  if  size  and 
numbers  v/ere  happiness.  We  are  anxious  to  swell  our 
population.  Is  it  not  worth  our  while  to  inquire,  what 
kind  of  a  population  we  are  to  gather  here  .''  Are  we 
so  blind  as  to  be  willing  and  anxious  to  repeat  the  ex- 
perience of  other  cities  ?  Are  we  willing  to  increase 
only  our  physical  comforts,  our  material  wealth  ^  Do 
we  not  know  that  great  cities  have  hitherto  drawn  to- 
gether the   abandoned  ?  have  bred  a  horde  of  ignorant, 


lOS  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

profligate,  criminal  poor  ?  have  been  deformed  by  the 
horrible  contrasts  of  luxury  and  famine,  of  splendor  and 
abject  woe  ?  Do  we  not  know  that  among  the  indigent 
and  laborious  classes  of  great  cities  the  mortality  is  fear- 
fully great  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  country  ?  a  re- 
sult to  be  traced  to  the  pestilential  atmosphere  which 
these  people  breathe,  to  the  filth,  darkness,  and  damp- 
ness of  their  dwellings,  to  the  suffering,  comfortless 
condition  of  their  children,  and  to  the  gross  vices  which 
spring  up  from  ignorance  and  destitution.  Do  we  want 
no  better  destiny  for  this  our  dear  and  honored  metro- 
polis ?  You  will  not  suspect  me  of  being  a  foe  to  what 
are  called  improvements.  Let  our  city  grow.  Let 
railroads  connect  it  with  the  distant  West.  Let  com- 
merce link  it  with  the  remotest  East.  But,  whilst  its 
wealth  and  numbers  grow,  let  its  means  of  intelligence, 
religion,  virtue,  domestic  purity,  and  fraternal  union 
grow  faster.  Let  us  be  more  anxious  for  moral  than 
physical  growth.  May  God  withhold  prosperity,  unless 
it  is  to  be  inspired,  hallowed,  ennobled  by  public  spirit, 
by  institutions  for  higher  education,  and  by  increasing 
concern  of  the  enlightened  and  opulent  for  the  ignorant 
and  poor  !  If  prosperity  is  to  narrow  and  harden  us,  to 
divide  us  into  castes  of  high  and  low,  to  corrupt  the  rich 
by  extravagance  and  pride,  and  to  create  a  more  reck- 
less class  of  poor,  then  God  avert  it  from  us  !  But  pros- 
perity need  not  be  so  abused.  It  admits  of  noble  uses. 
It  may  multiply  the  means  of  good.  It  may  multiply 
teachers  of  truth  and  virtue.  It  may  make  the  desert 
places  of  society  blossom  as  the  rose.  To  this  end 
may  our  prosperity  be  consecrated.  Thus  may  we  re- 
quite the  Author  of  all  good. 

How  we  may  accomplish  the  good  work  now  set  be- 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  109 

fore  US  I  have  not  time  to  say.  I  u-ould  only  ask  your 
attention  to  one  means  of  improving  our  city,  to  which 
our  attention  is  particularly  called  by  the  occasion  which 
has  brought  us  together.  I  refer  to  the  Ministry  at 
Large.  The  reasons  of  this  institution  are  too  obvious 
to  require  labored  exposition.  That  those  classes  of 
society  which  enjoy  fewest  advantages  of  education  pe- 
culiarly need  instruction  and  the  voice  of  the  Hving 
teacher  ;  that  those  whose  habits,  conditions,  and  wants 
exclude  them,  in  effect,  from  our  churches  should  be 
visited  in  their  homes  by  the  ministers  of  Christianity, 
who  does  not  see  and  acknowledge  ?  Tf  we,  with  every 
means  of  culture,  need  the  Christian  ministry,  the  poor 
need  it  more.  Is  it  not  a  duty,  and  should  we  not  re- 
joice, to  send  forth  faithful,  enlightened  men  whose 
office  shall  be,  to  strengthen  those  whom  corrupt  in- 
fluences are  sweeping  from  duty  with  peculiar  power, 
to  guide  those  who  have  no  other  counsellor,  to  admon- 
ish and  cheer  those  who  are  pressed  with  heaviest  temp- 
tations, to  awaken  the  minds  of  those  who  are  almost 
unconscious  of  their  intellectual  powers,  to  breathe  for- 
titude into  those  who  suffer  most,  to  open  a  better  world 
to  those  to  whom  this  world  is  darkened,  and,  above  all, 
to  snatch  their  children  from  ruin,  to  protect  the  young 
who  seem  borne  to  a  heritage  of  want  or  crime  ?  The 
ministiy  devoted  to  these  offices  is,  undeniably,  a  wise, 
Christian,  noble  institution.  This  evening  you  are  call- 
ed to  contribute  to  its  support.  Do  so  cheerfully.  You 
are  not  called  to  uphold  a  plan  of  doubtful  charity,  or 
to  send  teachers  to  remote  regions,  where  years  of 
anxious  labor  must  be  spent  on  an  unbroken,  unthankful 
soil  before  ihe  fruit  can  appear.  You  are  invited  to 
sustain  an  institution  seated  in  the  heart  of  our  city,  and 

VOL.  VI.  10 


110  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

which,  as  you  know,  is  sending  the  waters  of  life  through 
our  own  population.  Its  chapels,  Sunday  schools,  li- 
braries, are  in  the  midst  of  you.  The  doors  to  which 
its  ministers  carry  counsel  and  consolation  are  near  your 
own.  You  see  its  influences  this  moment  in  these  child- 
ren. Its  aim  is,  to  remove  the  saddest  features  of  our 
civilization,  the  deep  corruption  of  great  cities  ;  and  in 
the  energy  which  it  now  puts  forth  we  have  a  pledge  of 
a  happier  era,  in  which  society  will  prosper  without  the 
terrible  sacrifice  of  so  many  of  its  members.  May  this 
good  work  go  on  and  spread,  and  may  future  genera- 
tions bless  us  for  saving  them  from  some  of  the  worst 
evils  which  darken  our  own  age  ! 

I  have  now  closed  my  remarks  on  the  general  topic 
suggested  by  this  occasion.  But  the  work  of  the  Min- 
istry for  the  Poor  has  brought  to  my  mind  solemn  and 
tender  thoughts,  which  I  know  you  will  not  think  foreign 
to  our  present  meeting,  and  which  it  will  be  a  relief  to 
my  own  spirit  to  express.  The  Ministry  at  Large  in 
this  city  was  chiefly  originated  and  established  by  one 
of  my  earliest,  dearest  friends,  who  closed  his  eyes  not 
many  months  since  on  a  foreign  shore.  Allow  me  to 
pay  a  tribute  to  his  memory  ;  and  in  doing  this  allow 
me  to  speak  with  the  freedom  of  friendship.  I  have 
not  labored  to  collect  materials  for  a  regular  history 
of  this  distinguished  man,  for  1  believe  that  I  shall  be 
more  just  to  his  memory  in  giving  reminiscences  of  our 
long  intercourse  than  in  reporting  a  series  of  events.  I 
will  utter  with  all  simplicity  what  rises  to  my  memory, 
and  I  hope  that  the  clear  image  which  I  bear  of  my  de- 
parted friend  may  be  transferred  to  the  hearts  of  my 
hearers. 


CF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  1 1 1 

My  acquaintance  wlih  Joseph  Tuckerman  began 
about  forty-seven  years  ago,  and  during  most  of  the 
time  which  has  since  ela|)sed  we  lived  together  as  broth- 
ers, communicating  thoughts,  feelings,  reproofs,  encour- 
agements, with  a  faithfulness  not  often  surpassed.  I 
think  of  him  with  peculiar  pleasure,  as  he  was,  perhaps, 
the  most  signal  example  within  my  rememhrance  of 
Improvement  ;  of  a  man  overcoming  obstacles,  and 
making  progress  under  disadvantages.  When  I  fii'st 
met  him  in  college  he  had  the  innocence  of  childhood  ; 
he  was  sympathizing,  generous,  without  a  stain  of  the 
vices  to  which  youth  is  prone  ;  but  he  did  not  seem  to 
have  any  serious  views  of  life.  Three  years  he  passed 
almost  as  a  holyday,  unconscious  of  his  privileges,  un- 
interested in  his  severer  studies,  surrendering  himself  to 
sportive  impulses,  which,  however  harmless  in  them- 
selves, consumed  the  hours  which  should  have  been 
given  to  toil.  How  often  has  he  spoken  to  me  with 
grief  and  compunction  of  his  early  wasted  life  !  In  his 
last  college  year  a  change  began,  and  the  remote  cause 
of  it  he  often  spoke  of  with  lively  sensibility.  His  moth- 
er, he  was  accustomed  to  say,  was  one  of  the  best  of 
women.  She  had  instilled  into  him  the  truths  of  i-eli- 
gion  with  a  mother's  love,  tempered  with  no  common 
wisdom.  The  seed  was  sown  in  a  kindly  nature.  The 
religious  principle,  which  at  first  had  only  been  a  re- 
straint from  evil,  began  to  incite  to  good  ;  and  to  this 
the  progress  and  greatness  of  his  life  were  mainly  due. 
On  leaving  college  he  gave  himself  to  the  Ch]-istian  min- 
istry ;  but,  with  the  unchastened  inconsideratlon  of  his 
youth,  he  plunged  into  its  duties  with  little  preparation. 
The  consequence  was  a  succession  of  mortifications, 
most  painful  at   the   time,   but  of  which   he  afterwards 


112  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

spoke  as  a  merciful  discipline.  So  unpromising  was  the 
opening  of  a  career  of  singular  energy  and  usefulness. 

By  the  kind  ordination  of  Providence  he  was  settled 
in  a  small,  obscure  parish,  which  offered  nothing  to 
gratify  ambition  or  to  dissipate  the  mind.  Years  passed 
in  a  life  which  we  should  call  monotonous,  but  which 
was  singularly  fitted  to  give  him  the  calmness  and  steadi- 
ness which  he  needed.  Here  he  became  a  student,  a 
faithful,  laborious  student,  and  accumulated  much  know- 
ledge, and  devoted  no  little  time  to  the  thorny  topics  of 
theology.  Thus  the  defects  of  his  early  intellectual 
training  were  repaired,  and  his  faculties  sharpened  and 
invigorated. 

He  was  not,  however,  made  to  wear  out  life  in  such 
pursuits.  His  strength  did  not  he  in  abstract  specula- 
tion. Had  he  given  himself  to  this,  he  would  never 
have  forced  his  way  to  new  or  great  views.  His  heart 
was  his  great  power.  To  his  moral,  religious,  benevo- 
lent sentiments  he  owed,  chiefly,  the  expansion  of  his 
intellectual  nature.  Having  laid  a  good  foundation  by 
study,  an  unerring  instinct  taught  him  that  study  was  not 
his  vocation.  His  heart  yearned  for  active  life.  He 
became  more  and  more  penetrated  with  the  miseries  and 
crimes  of  the  world.  As  he  sat  in  his  lonely  study,  the 
thought  of  what  men  endured  on  the  land  and  the  sea 
withdrew  him  from  his  books.  He  was  irresistibly  at- 
tracted towards  his  fellow-creatures,  by  their  sufferings, 
and,  still  more,  by  a  consciousness  that  there  was  some- 
thing great  beneath  their  suflerings,  by  a  sympathy  with 
their  spiritual  wants.  His  study  window  looked  on  the 
sea  ;  and  the  white  sail,  as  it  skirted  the  horizon,  re- 
minded him  of  the  ignorance  and  moral  perils  of  the 
sailor  ;  and,  accordingly,  he  was  the  first  man   in  the 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERTVIAN.  113 

country  to  make  an  effort  for  the  improvement  and  in- 
struction of  this  class  of  men.  The  society  which  he 
instituted  for  this  end  did  not  answer  its  purpose  ;  for  he 
knew  htile  or  nothing  of  the  people  he  wished  to  serve, 
nor  was  the  community  then  awake,  as  it  now  is,  to  the 
work  of  reform.  But  the  spirit  which  was  moving  in 
him  was  not  depressed  by  failure.  He  soon  gave  him- 
self with  zeal  to  the  missionary  cause  ;  thought,  talked, 
and  wrote  about  it  with  characteristic  energy  ;  and,  had 
not  family  ties  prevented,  would  have  devoted  himself, 
I  believe,  to  the  service  of  the  heathen. 

Whilst  the  passion  for  conflict  with  evil  was  strug- 
gling within  him  his  health  failed,  and  for  a  time  he  had 
reason  to  fear  that  he  was  to  be  cut  off  from  usefulness. 
But  the  same  gracious  Providence  which  had  ordained 
with  signal  kindness  the  events  of  his  past  existence  was 
guiding  him  through  this  dark  passage  to  the  great  sphere 
and  purpose  of  his  life.  His  disease  incapacitated  him 
for  answering  the  demand  made  upon  his  voice  by  the 
pulpit.  He  felt  that  he  must  cease  from  regular  preach- 
ing ;  and  what,  then,  was  he  to  do  .''  In  a  favored  hour 
the  thought  of  devoting  himself  to  the  service  of  the 
poor  of  this  city  entered  his  mind,  and  met  a  response 
within  which  gave  it  the  character  of  a  Divine  monition. 
He  consulted  me  ;  and,  in  obedience  to  a  long-rooted 
conviction,  that  society  needs  new  ministries  and  agen- 
cies for  its  redemption,  and  that  men  ins])ired  with  self- 
sacrificing  zeal  for  its  redemption  are  God's  best  gifts  to 
the  world,  I  encouraged  his  faith  and  hope. 

At  first  he  entered  almost  tremblingly  the  houses  of 

the  poor  where  he  was  a  stranger,  to  offer  his  sympathy 

and  friendship.     But  "  the  sheep  knew  the  voice  of  the 

shepherd."    The  poor  recognized  by  instinct  their  friend, 

10* 


114  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

and  from  the  first  moment  a  relation  of  singular  tender- 
ness and  confidence  was  established  between  them. 
That  part  of  his  life  I  well  remember,  for  he  came  often 
to  pour  into  my  ear  and  heart  his  experience  and  suc- 
cess. I  well  remember  the  effect  which  contact  with 
the  poor  produced  on  his  mind.  He  had  loved  them 
when  he  knew  little  of  them,  when  their  distresses  came 
to  him  through  the  imagination.  But  he  was  a  proof 
that  no  speculation  or  imagination  can  do  the  work  of 
actual  knowledge.  So  deep  was  the  sympathy,  so  in- 
tense the  interest,  which  the  poor  excited  in  him,  that  it 
seemed  as  if  a  new  fountain  of  love  had  been  opened 
within  him.  No  favorite  of  fortune  could  have  repaired 
to  a  palace,  where  the  rays  of  royal  favor  were  to  be 
centred  on  him,  with  a  more  eager  spirit  and  quicker 
step  than  our  friend  hastened  to  the  abodes  of  want  in 
the  darkest  alleys  of  our  city.  How  often  have  I  stood 
humbled  before  the  deep  spiritual  love  which  burst  from 
him  in  those  free  communications  which  ^ew  enjoyed 
beside  myself.  I  cannot  forget  one  evening,  when,  in 
conversing  with  the  late  Dr.  Follen  and  myself  on  the 
claims  of  the  poor,  and  on  the  cold-heartedness  of  so- 
ciety, he  not  only  deeply  moved  us,  but  filled  us  with 
amazement,  by  his  depth  of  feeling  and  energy  of  utter- 
ance ;  nor  can  I  forget  how,  when  he  left  us.  Dr.  Fol- 
len, a  man  fitted  by  his  own  spirit  to  judge  of  greatness, 
said  to  me,  "  He  is  a  great  man." 

This  strong  love  for  his  fellow-creatures  was  not  a 
wild  enthusiasm.  It  was  founded  on  clear,  deliberate 
perception  of  the  spiritual  nature,  the  immortal  destina- 
tion, of  every  human  being.  Whoever  discerns  truly 
and  feels  deeply  this  greatness  of  humanity,  this  relation 
of  the  soul  to  God,  must,  indeed,  pass  for  an  enthusiast 
in   the  present  day  ;  for   our  state  of  society  is,  in   a 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERT\IAN.  115 

great  degree,  a  denial  of  the  higher  rights,  claims,  and 
destinies  of  a  human  being. 

It  was  this  love  for  the  poor  which  gave  to  our  friend's 
labors  their  efficacy,  which  made  his  ministry  a  living 
thing,  and  which  gave  it  perpetuity.  This  house  and 
our  other  chapels  had  their  foundation  in  this  love.  He 
could  not  be  kept  from  the  poor.  Cold^  storms,  sick- 
ness, severe  pain,  could  not  shut  him  up  at  home.  Noth- 
ing but  his  domestic  ties  prevented  him  from  taking  up 
his  abode  among  the  indigent.  He  would  sometimes 
say,  that,  could  he,  on  leaving  the  world,  choose  his 
sphere,  it  would  be  that  of  a  ministering  spirit  to  the 
poor  ;  and  if  the  spirits  of  departed  good  men  return  to 
our  world,  his,  I  doubt  not,  might  be  found  in  the  haunts 
of  want  and  woe.  In  this,  as  I  have  already  said,  there 
was  no  blinding  enthusiasm.  He  saw  distinctly  the  vices 
which  are  often  found  among  the  poor,  their  craft,  and 
sloth,  and  ingratitude.  His  ministry  was  carried  on  in 
the  midst  of  their  frequent  filth  and  recklessness.  The 
coarsest  realities  pressed  him  on  every  side.  These 
were  not  the  scenes  to  make  an  enthusiast.  But  amidst 
these  he  saw,  now  the  fainter  signs,  now  the  triumphs,  of 
a  divine  virtue.  It  was  his  delight  to  relate  examples  of 
patience,  disinterestedness,  piety,  amidst  severest  suffer- 
ings. These  taught  him,  that,  in  the  poorest  hovels,  he 
was  walking  among  immortals,  and  his  faith  in  the  di- 
vinity within  the  soul  turned  his  ministry  into  joy. 

Dr.  Tuckerman  has  sometimes  been  called  the  found- 
er of  the  Ministry  at  Large.  If  by  this  language  be 
meant  that  he  first  planned  and  established  a  distinct 
ministry  for  the  poor,  the  language  is  incorrect.  Before 
his  time  there  had  been  men  who  had  devoted  them- 
selves exclusively  and  faithfully  to  the  religious  instruc- 


116  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

lion  of  those  who  cannot  be  gathered  into  the  ordinary 
places  of  worship.  His  merit  lay  in  giving  a  new  life 
to  the  work,  in  showing  what  it  could  do,  in  raising  it 
from  neglect  to  a  high  place  among  the  means  of  re- 
generating the  world,  and  in  awakening  new  hopes  of 
the  improvement  of  what  had  been  looked  on  as  the 
hopeless  portion  of  society.  The  greatest  benefactors 
of  men  are,  not  so  much  those  who  discover  or  contrive 
wholly  original  and  untried  modes  of  action,  as  those 
who  seize  on  familiar  means  or  agencies  and  exalt  them 
into  new  powers.  Our  friend  had  hardly  entered  into 
his  ministry  when  he  discovered  its  capacities.  He  saw 
that  it  opened  a  sphei-e  of  usefulness  which  had  hardly 
been  dreamed  of.  With  prophetic  faith,  he  threw  into 
it  his  whole  soul  ;  and  his  example  and  success  raised 
up  others  to  confide  in  and  to  wield  the  same  power. 
He  may  thus  be  said,  in  an  important  sense,  to  have 
established  this  ministry.  Through  him  it  has  taken  root 
in  men's  faith.  It  has  passed,  with  all  the  energy  which 
he  imparted  to  it,  into  other  hands,  and  is  seen  and  felt 
to  deserve  a  place  among  our  permanent  institutions. 
Much  of  this  success  was,  undoubtedly,  due  to  his 
singleness  of  heart  ;  but  much,  also,  to  his  clear  insight 
imo  the  principles  of  human  nature  which  rendered  the 
poor  open  to  good  influences,  and  into  the  means  by 
which  human  beings  in  their  condition  may  be  most 
effectually  approached. 

In  carrying  on  this  great  work  Dr.  Tuckerman  did 
not  stand  alone.  He  received  important  aids  from 
sympathizing  friends.  Pie  began  his  labors  under  the 
patronage  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  At 
length,  to  insure  the  continuance  of  the  Ministry  at  Large 
and  to  extend  its  operation,  a  union,  or,  as  it  is  called,  a 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  117 

Fraternity,  of  several  churches  in  the  city  was  formed, 
to  take  this  important  work  under  its  guidance  and  care, 
'i'here  were  some  among  us  who  had  come  to  feel  that 
a  Christian  church  was  established  not  only  for  the  edifi- 
cation of  its  own  members,  but  for  the  general  cause  of 
Christianity  ;  and  that  it  was  especially  bound  to  extend 
the  means  of  moral  and  religious  instruction  to  such 
famihes  or  individuals  in  its  neighbourhood  as,  from 
poverty,  or  any  other  causes,  were  deprived  of  the  bene- 
fit of  the  public  ordinances  of  religion.  In  conformity 
to  this  idea  the  Fraternity  was  formed,  on  a  simple  but 
efficient  plan.  Tn  each  of  the  churches  disposed  to  co- 
operate for  the  support  of  the  Ministry  at  Large  a  branch- 
association  is  estabhshed,  the  members  of  which  con- 
tribute to  this  work  according  to  their  means  or  sense  of 
duty,  and  which  is  represented  in  a  central  board,  to 
whose  discretion  the  management  of  the  whole  concern 
IS  intrusted.  By  this  arrangement  various  good  ends 
are  accomplished.  The  Ministry  of  the  Poor  has  be- 
come linked  with  our  most  important  religious  institu- 
tion, and  may  be  hoped  to  partake  of  the  durableness 
of  the  regular  ministry.  The  churches  are  knit  together 
by  a  new  bond,  not  one  of  creeds,  or  tribunals,  or  organi- 
zations to  accumulate  powder,  but  the  holy  bond  of  chari- 
ly ;  and,  still  more,  they  are  brought  to  recognize  dis- 
tinctly and  practically  their  obligation  to  look  beyond 
themselves,  and  to  labor  for  the  extension  of  Christian 
truth  and  virtue. 

This  association  gave  but  a  small  salary  to  Dr. 
Tuckerman,  but  he  desired  nothing  beyond  what  was 
necessary  to  save  him  from  debt ;  and  this  he  did  desire. 
On  this  point  he  was  pecuharly  sensitive,  so  much  so 
that  a  notice  of  him  would  be  imperfect  in  which  this 


118  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

Iralt  should  be  omitted.  He  shrunk  from  the  shghtest 
pecuniary  embarrassment  as  an  intolerable  evil.  "  Owe 
no  man  any  thing,"  was  a  precept  which  he  kept  in 
sight  in  all  his  domestic  arrangements  ;  and,  by  his  strict 
economy  and  wise  providence,  he  was  able  to  spend  a 
long  life  and  bring  up  a  large  family  without  once  an- 
ticipating his  income  and  without  contracting  a  debt. 
Some  of  his  friends,  of  looser  habits,  received  lessons 
of  wisdom  and  reproof  in  this  respect  from  his  counsel 
and  example. 

As  to  the  great  ideas  which  ruled  over  and  guided  his 
ministry,  and  as  to  the  details  of  his  operations,  they 
may  be  gathered  best  from  the  Reports  which  he  was 
accustomed  to  make  to  the  societies  under  whose  pat- 
ronage he  acted.  He  published,  indeed,  a  volume  on 
this  subject  ;  but  it  is  hardly  worthy  of  his  abilities  or 
his  cause.  It  was  prepared  under  the  pressure  of  dis- 
ease, when  his  constitution  was  so  exhausted  by  exces- 
sive labor  that  he  was  compelled  to  forego  all  out-door 
duties.  He  wrote  it  with  a  morbid  impatience,  as  If  he 
might  be  taken  away  before  giving  It  to  the  w^orld.  It 
ought,  in  truth,  to  be  regarded  as  an  extemporaneous 
effusion.  It  was  hurried  through  the  press  whilst  the 
friends  whom  he  had  consulted  were  hoping  that  it  was 
undergoing  a  patient  revision.  Thus  hastily  composed, 
it  was  necessarily  difluse,  a  fault  which  marks  his  most 
careful  writings.  It  might,  Indeed,  have  been  compress- 
ed to  half  the  size  ;  and,  as  might  be  expected,  it  fell 
almost  dead  from  the  press.  This  sore  trial  he  bore 
whh  great  equanimity  ;  but  he  felt  it  deeply.  The  sad- 
dest words  I  heard  from  him  in  his  sickness  were  those 
In  which  he  expressed  his  regrets  at  having  precipitated 
this  publication. 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  119 

It  is  in  his  Reports,  chiefly,  that  the  history  of  his 
ministry  is  to  be  studied.  These  are  a  treasure  for  the 
man  who  would  act  wisely  on  the  poor.  They  are  rec- 
ords of  an  uncommonly  various  experience.  They 
show  his  insiCjht  into  the  temptations,  perils,  hearts,  of 
the  depressed  and  indigent  ;  and,  whilst  exposing  their 
errors  and  sins,  breathe  a  never-failing  sympathy.  It  is 
easy  to  see  in  these  that  the  great  principle  which  ani- 
mated his  ministry  was  an  immovable  faith  in  God's 
merciful  purposes  towards  the  poor.  Their  condition 
never,  for  a  moment,  seemed  to  him  to  separate  them 
from  their  Creator.  On  the  contrary,  he  felt  God's 
presence  in  the  narrow,  comfortless  dwelling  of  the  poor 
as  he  felt  it  nowhere  else. 

His  perpetual  recognition  of  the  spiritual,  immortal 
nature  of  the  poor  gave  to  all  his  intercourse  a  charac- 
ter of  tenderness  and  respect.  He  spoke  to  them  plain- 
ly, boldly,  but  still  as  to  the  children  of  the  same  infi- 
nite Father.  He  trusted  in  man's  moral  nature,  how- 
ever bruised  and  crushed  ;  he  was  sure  that  no  heart 
could  resist  him,  if  he  could  but  convince  it  of  his  sin- 
cere brotherly  concern.  One  rule  he  observed  almost 
too  instinctively  to  make  it  a  rule.  He  always  spoke 
encouragingly.  He  felt  that  the  weight  under  which  the 
poor  man's  spirit  was  already  sinking  needed  no  addi- 
tion from  the  harshness  of  his  spiritual  guide.  He  went 
forth  in  the  power  of  brotherly  love,  and  found  it  a  di- 
vine armor.  On  this  point  too  much  cannot  be  said. 
The  city  of  Boston  has  the  honor,  above  all  cities,  of 
proving  how  much  can  be  accomplished  by  a  generous, 
affectionate  mode  of  speech  and  action  among  those 
classes  of  society  which  it  has  been  thought  can  only 
be    reached    by    menace,    sternness,   and    terror.     Dr. 


120  DISCOUKSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

Tuckerman  and  his  successors,  in  their  intercourse  with 
the  poor,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Taylor,  in  his  labors  among 
seamen,  have  taught  us  that  men,  in  the  most  unprom- 
ising conditions,  are  to  be  treated  as  men  ;  that  under 
coarse  jackets,  and  even  rags,  may  be  found  tender  and 
noble  hearts  ;  and  that  the  heart,  even  when  hardened, 
still  responds  to  the  voice  of  a  true  friend  and  brother. 
The  horrible  thought,  that  certain  portions  of  society 
are  to  be  kept  down  by  appeals  to  their  superstition  and 
fear,  has  here  received  a  refutation  very  cheering  to  the 
friends  of  humanity.  Dr.  Tuckerman  carried  among 
the  poor  his  own  highest  views  of  religion,  and  often 
spoke  to  me  of  the  eagerness  with  which  tiiey  were  re- 
ceived. He  was,  indeed,  too  wise  a  man  to  give  them 
in  an  abstract  form,  or  in  technical  language.  They 
were  steeped  in  his  heart  before  they  found  their  way  to 
his  hps  ;  and,  flowing  w^arm  and  fresh  from  this  foun- 
tain, they  were  drunk  in  as  hving  waters  by  the  thirsty 
souls  of  the  poor. 

A  great  secret  of  Dr.  Tuckerman's  success  lay  in 
his  strong  interest  in  individuals.  It  was  not  in  his  na- 
ture to  act  on  masses  by  general  methods  ;  he  threw  his 
soul  into  particular  cases.  Every  sufferer  whom  he 
visited  seemed  to  awaken  in  him  a  special  affection  and 
concern.  I  remember  well  the  language  which  he  once 
used  in  regard  to  a  man  who  had  gone  far  astray.  He 
said  to  me  with  deep  emotion,  "  I  want  that  man's  soul; 
I  must  save  him."  He  made  the  worst  feel  that  they 
had  a  friend,  and  by  his  personal  interest  linked  them 
anew  with  their  race. 

Let  me  add  another  explication  of  his  success.  He 
sought  for  something  to  love  in  all.  He  seized  on  any 
thing  good  which  might   remain  in  the  fallen   spirit ;  on 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN,  121 

any  domestic  affection,  any  generous  feeling,  which 
might  have  escaped  the  wreck  of  the  character.  If  he 
could  but  touch  one  chord  of  love,  one  tender  recollec- 
tion of  home,  one  feehng  of  shame  or  sorrow  for  the 
past,  no  matter  how  faintly,  he  rejoiced  and  took  cour- 
age, like  the  good  physician  who,  in  watching  over  the 
drowned,  detects  a  flutter  of  the  pulse,  or  the  feeblest 
sign  of  life.  His  hope  in  such  cases  tended  to  fulfil  it- 
self. His  tones  awakened  a  like  hope  in  the  fallen. 
"  He  did  not  break  the  bruised  reed,  or  quench  the 
smoking  flax." 

He  began  his  ministry  expecting  to  accomplish  his 
work  by  visiting  and  conversation,  and  this  he  always 
relied  on  as  the  most  important  means  of  usefulness. 
But  he  soon  found  that  social  worship  could  not  be  dis- 
pensed with,  that  this  was  a  want  of  human  nature  ;  that 
the  poor,  by  the  mere  circumstance  of  leaving  their 
homes  and  coming  together  in  decent  apparel  for  the 
worship  of  God,  received  a  salutary  impulse,  and  that 
in  this  way  they  could  be  brought  most  effectually  to 
act  on  one  another  for  good.  He  therefore  resumed 
preaching,  though  unequal  to  the  effort.  The  effect  of 
this  new  situation  in  awakening  his  powers  as  a  preach- 
er was  striking.  In  his  sermons  written  for  common 
congregations  he  had  never  been  very  attractive  ;  but 
his  free,  extemporaneous,  fervent  address  drew  round 
him  a  crowd  of  poor  who  hung  on  his  hps  ;  and  those 
who  were  not  poor  were  moved  by  his  fervent  utter- 
ance. His  idea  of  preaching  underwent  a  great  change. 
Whilst  abstaining  from  public  complaint,  he  would  in 
private  mourn  over  the  lifeless  discussions  of  the  pulpit, 
which  too  often  make  the  church  cold  as  the  grave. 

His  influence  over  the  poor  was  a  good  deal  increased 

VOL.    VI.  11 


122  DiscoxmsE  on  the  life  and  character 

by  the  variety  of  forms  in  which  he  exerted  it.  He 
was  not  merely  a  spiritual  guide.  He  had  much  skill  in 
the  details  of  common  life,  was  a  good  economist,  un- 
derstood much  about  the  trades  and  labors  in  which  the 
poor  are  most  occupied,  could  suggest  expedients  for 
diminishing  expense  and  multiplying  comforts,  and  by 
these  homely  gifts  won  the  confidence  of  the  poor.  He 
could  sympathize  with  them  in  their  minutest  wants  and 
sufferings,  and  opened  a  w^ay  for  his  high  truths  by 
being  a  wise  counsellor  as  to  their  worldly  interests.  At 
the  very  moment  when  he  passed  with  some  for  an  en- 
thusiast, he  was  teaching  household  management  to  a 
poor  woman,  or  contriving  employment  for  her  husband, 
or  finding  a  place  for  her  child. 

This  reminds  me  of  one  branch  of  his  labors  in  which 
he  took  special  interest.  He  felt  deeply  for  the  child- 
ren of  the  poor.  They  were  in  his  mind  habitually, 
as  he  walked  the  streets,  and  when  he  entered  the  in- 
digent dwelling.  He  used  to  stop  to  inquire  into  the 
residence  and  history  of  the  begging  child.  He  visited 
the  market  and  the  wharf  to  discover  the  young  who 
were  wasting  the  day  in  sloth,  taking  their  first  lessons 
in  the  art  of  theft.  He  was  unwearied  in  his  efforts  to 
place  these  children  in  schools  ;  and  multitudes  owe  to 
him  their  moral  safety  and  the  education  which  pre- 
pared them  for  respectable  lives.  Through  his  means, 
not  a  few,  who  had  escaped  all  domestic  control  and 
entered  on  the  downward  path  of  crime,  were  sent  to 
the  House  of  Reformation  ;  and  he  delighted  to  meet, 
or  speak  of,  those  who,  under  this  influence,  had  been 
restored  to  innocence.  To  the  interest  which  he  awak- 
ened in  the  unprotected  children  of  the  poor  we  owe 
chiefly  the  establishment  of  the  Farm   School.     If  any 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  123 

subject  peculiarly  occupied  his  thoughts  and  heart,  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  city  to  that  portion  of  the  young 
who,  if  not  adopted  by  society,  must  grow  up  to  guilt 
and  shame  and  public  punishment.  Tf  his  benevolence 
ever  broke  out  in  bitter  reproach,  it  was  in  speaking  of 
the  general  insensibihty  to  the  neglected  child,  trainetl 
up  by  its  parents  to  beggary  and  fraud,  accustomed  to 
breathe  the  fumes  of  intemperance,  and  left  to  look  on 
vice  as  its  natural  state.  Such  was  his  influence  that 
street-beggary  sensibly  declined  among  us,  an  effect  in- 
dicating an  extent  of  good  influence  not  easily  appre- 
hended. 

To  show  his  generous  modes  of  viewing  the  poor, 
I  would  state,  that,  for  a  time,  he  assembled  the  child- 
ren one  afternoon  in  the  week  to  give  them  instruction 
in  natural  history.  He  took  great  dehght  in  this  branch 
of  knowledge,  and  had  stored  up  in  his  mind  a  large 
number  of  facts  illustrative  of  the  wisdom  and  goodness 
of  God  in  the  creation.  These  he  used  to  unfold,  and 
was  able  to  awaken  the  curiosity  and  fix  the  attention 
of  his  young  hearers  ;  of  which,  indeed,  they  furnished 
proof,  by  giving  him  a  portion  of  time  usually  spent  in 
play.  His  want  of  strength,  which  compelled  him  to 
relinquish  the  pulpit,  obliged  him  to  give  up  this  mode 
of  teaching  after  a  short  trial. 

I  mention  these  various  exertions  as  illustrative  of 
the  enlarged  spirit  which  he  carried  into  his  work.  His 
great  object  was  to  promote  rehgion  ;  but  religion  did 
not  stand  alone  in  his  mind.  He  felt  its  connexion  with 
intellectual  cultivation,  with  wise  household  management, 
with  neatness  and  propriety  of  manners,  and  especially 
with  the  discharge  of  parental  duty  ;  and  his  labors  may 
be  said  to  have  covered  almost  all  the  departments  of 


124  .  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

social  life.  The  truth  is,  that  his  heart  was  in  his  work. 
He  did  not  think  of  it  as  the  work  of  a  day,  or  of  a  few 
years,  but  of  Hfe.  He  wanted  to  grow  old  and  die  in  it. 
The  world  opened  nothing  to  him,  in  all  its  various 
callings,  more  honorable,  more  godlike.  His  ambition, 
of  which  he  had  his  share,  and  his  disinterested  and  re- 
ligious principles,  all  flowed  into  this  channel  ;  so  that 
he  acted  with  undivided  energy,  with  a  whole  soul. 
Hence  he  became  fruitful  in  expedients,  detected  new 
modes  of  influence,  wound  his  way  to  his  end  gently 
and  indirectly,  and  contrived  to  turn  almost  every  thing 
to  account.  Some,  indeed,  complained  that  he  dragged 
his  poor  into  all  companies  and  conversation.  But  we 
must  learn  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  a  fervent  spirit,  and 
to  forgive  a  love  which  is  stronger  than  our  own,  though 
it  may  happen  to  want  the  social  tact  in  which  the  in- 
different and  trifling  are  apt  to  make  the  most  proficiency. 
On  one  subject  Dr.  Tuckerman  agreed  in  opinion 
and  feeling  with  all  who  visit  and  labor  for  the  poor. 
He  felt  that  the  poverty  of  our  city  w^as  due  chiefly  to 
Intemperance,  and  that  this  enhances  infinitely  the  woes 
of  a  destitute  condition.  A  poor  family  into  which  this 
vice  had  not  found  its  way  was  a  privileged  place  in  his 
sight.  Poverty  without  drunkenness  hardly  seemed  to 
rank,  as  an  evil,  by  the  side  of  that  which  drunkenness 
had  generated.  If  there  was  one  of  our  citizens  whom 
he  honored  as  eminently  the  friend  of  the  poor,  it  was 
that  unwearied  philanthropist  who,  whilst  his  heart  and 
hands  are  open  to  all  the  claims  of  misery,  has  selected, 
as  his  peculiar  care,  the  cause  of  Temperance.*  Dr. 
Tuckerman's  spirit  groaned  under  the  evils  of  intemper- 
ance, as  the  ancient  prophets  under  the  burden  of  the 

*  Moses  Grant 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  125 

woes  which  they  were  sent  to  denounce.  The  fumes 
of  a  distillery  were,  to  his  keen  feelings,  more  noisome 
and  deadly  than  the  vapors  of  putrefaction  and  pesti- 
lence. He  looked  on  a  shop  for  vending  ardent  spirits 
as  he  would  have  looked  on  a  pitfall  opening  into  hell. 
At  the  sight  of  men  who,  under  all  our  present  lights, 
are  growing  rich  by  spreading  these  poisons  through  the 
land,  he  felt,  I  doubt  not,  how  the  curses  of  the  lost  and 
the  groans  of  ruined  wives  and  children  were  rising  up 
against  them.  I  know,  for  I  have  heard,  the  vehemence 
of  entreaty  with  which  Dr.  Tuckerman  sometimes  ap- 
proached the  intemperate,  and  he  has  often  related  to 
me  his  persevering  efforts  for  their  recovery.  Could  he 
have  bequeathed  to  the  sober  and  Christian  part  of  this 
city  and  Commonwealth  his  intense  convictions  in  regard 
to  this  vice,  it  would  soon  be  repressed  ;  the  sanction 
of  public  authority  would  no  longer  be  given  to  its  de- 
testable haunts  ;  one  chief  source  of  the  miseries  of  our 
civilization  would  be  dried  up. 

The  influence  of  Dr.  Tuckerman's  labors  was  not 
confined  to  this  city  or  country.  His  Reports  found 
their  way  to  Europe,  and  awakened  similar  exertions. 
When  his  declining  health  obliged  him  to  cross  the  ocean 
not  many  years  since,  he  met  in  England  a  cordial  wel- 
come from  kindred  spirits.  His  society  w^as  coveted  by 
the  good  and  eminent,  and  his  experience  listened  to 
with  profound  respect.  It  was  his  happiness  to  meet 
there  Rammohun  Roy.  I  was  informed  by  a  friend, 
who  was  present  at  their  mterviews,  that  this  wise  and 
great  Hindoo,  whose  oriental  courtesy  overflowed  to- 
wards all,  still  distinguished  our  countryman  by  the 
affectionate  veneration  with  which  he  embraced  him. 
In  France  he  was  received  with  much  kindness  by  the 
11* 


126  DISCOUKSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

Baron  Degerando,  the  distinguished  philosopher  and 
philanthropist,  whose  extensive  and  profound  researches 
into  poverty,  and  into  the  means  of  its  prevention  or 
cure,  have  left  him  no  rival,  whether  in  the  present  or 
past  times.  This  virtuous  man,  whose  single  name  is 
enough  to  redeem  France  from  the  reproach,  sometimes 
thrown  on  her,  of  indifference  to  the  cause  of  humanity, 
has  testified,  in  private  letters  and  in  his  writings,  his 
high  consideration  for  the  character  and  labors  of  our 
departed  friend.  In  truth,  Dr.  Tuckerman's  influence 
is  now  felt  on  both  sides  the  ocean  ;  and  his  name,  linked 
as  it  is  with  the  Ministry  of  the  Poor,  is  one  of  the  few 
among  us  which  will  be  transmitted  to  remote  posterity. 
There  is  hardly  a  more  enduring  monument  on  which  a 
man  can  inscribe  his  name  than  a  beneficent  institution 
founded  on  the  principles  of  human  nature,  and  which  is 
to  act  on  large  portions  of  society.  Schemes  of  policy, 
accumulations  of  power,  and  almost  all  the  writings  of 
an  age,  pass  away.  The  men  who  make  most  noise  are 
lost  and  forgotten  like  the  blasts  of  a  trumpet.  But  in- 
stitutions wrought  into  a  people's  habits,  and,  especially, 
incorporated  with  Christianity,  that  immortal  truth,  that 
everlasting  kingdom,  endure  for  ages.  Our  friend  has 
left  a  name  to  live;  —  not  that  a  name  is  v;orth  an 
anxious  thought;  —  but  the  ambitious,  who  mistake  for 
it  the  shout  of  a  brief  day,  may  be  usefully  reminded 
that  it  is  the  meed  of  those  who  are  toiling  in  obscure 
paths,  and  on  whom  they  hardly  deign  to  bestow  a 
passing  thought.  Dr.  Tuckerman  w^as  not  wholly  raised 
above  this  motive  ;  and  who  of  us  is  ?  But  his  work 
was  incomparably  dearer  to  him  than  renown  ;  he  toiled 
for  years  without  dreaming  of  the  reputation  it  was  to 
bestow ;  and  in  that  season  of  small  things  he  used  to 


.   OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCJKERMAN.  127 

say,  that,  if  the  rich  and  great  who  helped  to  sustain 
him  could  understand  the  dignity  and  happiness  of  his 
calling,  they  would  covet  it  themselves,  and  choose  to 
partake  the  toil  which  they  deputed  to  another. 

There  was  one  testimony  to  his  usefulness  which  gave 
him  pleasure,  and  that  was  the  sympathy  of  Christians 
who  differed  from  him  in  opinion.  He  went  among  the 
poor  to  serve  the  purposes  of  no  sect,  but  to  breathe 
into  them  the  spirit  and  hopes  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  and  in 
all  sects  he  found  hearty  well-wishers,  and  perhaps  he 
left  on  none  of  us  a  deeper  impression  of  his  piety  than 
on  those  with  whose  peculiarities  he  had  least  com- 
munion. 

Among  the  propitious  circumstances  of  the  life  of  Dr. 
Tuckerman  I  ought  not  to  pass  over  his  domestic  ties. 
He  was  twice  married,  and  each  of  these  connexions 
gave  him  an  invaluable  friend.  I  was  particularly  ac- 
quainted with  his  last  wife,  with  whom  a  large  part  of 
his  life  was  spent,  and  I  am  happy  to  pay  this  tribute  to 
her  singular  worth.  Her  reserve  and  shrinking  dehcacy 
threw  a  veil  over  her  beautiful  character.  She  was  little 
known  beyond  her  home  ;  but  there  she  silently  spread 
around  her  that  soft,  pure  light  the  preciousness  of  which 
is  never  fully  understood  till  it  is  quenched.  The  good 
Providence  which  adapts  blessings  to  our  wants  was 
particularly  manifested  in  giving  to  our  friend  such  a 
companion.  Her  calm,  gende  wisdom,  her  sweet  hu- 
mility, her  sympathy,  which,  though  tender,  was  too 
serene  to  disturb  her  clear  perceptions,  fitted  her  to  act 
instinctively,  and  without  the  consciousness  of  either 
party,  on  his  more  sanguine,  ardent  mind.  She  was 
fruly  a  spirit  of  good,  diffusing  a  tranquillizing  influence 
too  mildly  to  be  thought  of,  and  therefore,  more  sure. 


123  DISCOTIRSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

The  blow  which  took  her  from  him  left  a  wound  which 
time  could  not  heal.  Had  his  strength  been  continued, 
so  that  he  could  have  gone  from  the  house  of  mourning 
to  the  haunts  of  poverty,  he  would  have  escaped,  for  a 
good  part  of  the  day,  the  sense  of  his  bereavement. 
But  a  few  minutes'  walk  in  the  street  now  sent  him 
wearied  home.  There  the  loving  eye  which  had  so  long 
brightened  at  his  entrance  was  to  shed  its  mild  beam  on 
him  no  more.  There  the  voice  that  had  daily  inquired 
into  his  labors,  and  like  another  conscience  had  whisp- 
ered a  sweet  approval,  was  still.  There  the  sympathy 
which  had  pressed  with  tender  hand  his  aching  head, 
and  by  its  nursing  care  had  postponed  the  hour  of  ex- 
haustion and  disease,  was  gone.  He  was  not,  indeed, 
left  alone  ;  for  filial  love  and  reverence  spared  no  sooth- 
ing offices  ;  but  these,  though  felt  and  spoken  of  as  most 
precious,  could  not  take  the  place  of  what  had  been  re- 
moved. This  great  loss  produced  no  burst  of  grief.  It 
was  a  still,  deep  sorrow,  the  feeling  of  a  mighty  void, 
the  last  burden  which  the  spirit  can  cast  off.  His  at- 
tachment to  life  from  this  moment  sensibly  declined.  In 
seasons  of  peculiar  sensibility  he  wished  to  be  gone. 
He  kept  near  him  the  likeness  of  his  departed  friend, 
and  spoke  to  m.e  more  than  once  of  the  solace  which  he 
had  found  in  it,  as  what  I  in  my  more  favored  lot  could 
not  comprehend.  He  heard  her  voice  from  another 
world,  and  his  anticipations  of  that  world,  always  strong, 
became  now  more  vivid  and  touching. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  illustrate  the  singular  social 
virtues  of  Dr.  Tuckerman.  It  is,  however,  true,  that, 
in  his  casual  intercourse  with  strangers,  he  did  not  make 
as  favorable  an  impression  as  might  have  been  expected 
from  such  a  man.     He  seemed,  to  those  who  saw  him 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  129 

seldom,  too  self-conscious.  His  excitable  temperament 
sometimes  hurried  him  into  extravagance  of  speech.  His 
feehngs  sometimes  prevailed  over  his  judgment.  He 
wanted  skill  to  detect  the  point  beyond  which  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  hearer  could  not  follow  him,  so  that  he  some- 
times seemed  to  exact  undue  attention.  The  truth  is, 
that  human  nature,  even  in  very  good  men,  is  dispropor- 
tioned,  imperfect.  We  sometimes  express  our  wonder 
at  the  meeting  of  elements  so  incongruous  in  the  same 
character.  But  is  there  one  of  us  so  advanced  as  not 
to  know  from  inward  experience  the  contradictions  of 
the  human  soul  ^  It  is  cheering  to  think  how  little  our 
trust  in  superior  goodness  is  impaired  by  these  partial 
obscurations.  No  man,  perhaps,  saw  more  distinctly 
than  myself  the  imperfections  of  the  good  man  of  whom 
I  speak.  But  my  confidence  in  his  great  virtues  was  as 
firm  as  if  he  had  been  faultless.  There  was  a  genuine- 
ness in  his  love,  his  disinterestedness,  of  which  I  had  no 
more  doubt  than  of  his  existence.  If  ever  man  gave 
himself  sincerely  to  the  service  of  his  race,  it  was  he. 
—  I  have  made  these  remarks  because  I  have  long 
questioned  the  morality  and  wisdom  of  the  prevalent 
style  of  indiscriminate  praise  of  the  dead.  I  fear  we 
give  a  suspiciousness  to  our  delineations  of  our  friends 
by  throwing  over  them  the  hues  of  unreal  perfection.  I 
hold  no  man  to  be  worthy  of  eulogy  who  cannot  afford 
to  be  spoken  of  as  he  was,  who,  after  the  worst  is 
known,  cannot  inspire  reverence  and  love. 

I  have  spoken  of  Dr.  Tuckerman  in  relation  to  his 
fellow-creatures  ;  I  should  wrong  him  greatly  if  I  did 
not  speak  of  him  in  his  highest  relations.  In  these  the 
beauty  of  his  character  was  most  apparent  to  those  who 
saw  farthest  into  his  heart.     Others  admired  4iis  philan- 


•# 


ICO  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

thropy  ;  to  me  his  piety  was  more  impressive.  It  par- 
took of  the  warmth  of  his  nature,  but  was  calmer,  wiser, 
purer,  than  his  other  emotions.  It  was  simple,  free, 
omnipresent,  coming  out  in  unaffected  utterance,  color- 
ing his  common  thoughts  and  feehngs,  and  giving 
strength  and  elevation  to  all  his  virtues.  It  was  such 
a  piety  as  might  be  expected  from  its  early  history,  a 
piety  breathed  from  the  lips  and  caught  from  the  beam- 
ing countenance  of  an  excellent  mother. 

His  religion  was  of  the  most  enlarged,  liberal  char* 
acter.  He  did  not  shut  himself  up  even  in  Christian- 
ity. He  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  testimony  borne 
to  God  by  nature,  and  in  the  strivings  of  ancient  philo- 
sophy after  divine  truth.  But  Christianity  was  his  rock, 
his  defence,  his  nutriment,  his  life.  He  understood  the 
character  of  Jesus  by  sympathy,  as  w^ell  as  felt  the  need 
of  his  "glad  tidings."  He  had  been  a  faithful  student 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  had  once  thought  of  pre- 
paring a  work  on  Jewish  antiquities.  But  his  growing 
reverence  for  the  New  Testament  led  him  to  place  a 
vast  distance  between  it  and  the  ancient  Scriptures.  At 
one  period  of  his  ministry,  when  the  pressing  demands 
of  the  poor  compelled  him  to  forego  study  entirely,  I 
recollect  his  holding  up  to  me  a  Greek  Harmony  of  the 
Four  Gospels,  and  his  saying,  that  here  was  his  library, 
that  Christ's  history  was  his  theology,  and  that  in  the 
morning  he  snatched  a  moment  for  this,  when  he  could 
find  time  for  nothing  else. 

Reli2:ion  in  different  individuals  manifests  itself  in  dif- 
ferent  forms.  In  him  it  shone  forth  peculiarly  in  faith 
or  filial  trust,  and  in  gratitude.  His  faith  in  God  was 
unbounded.  It  never  wavered,  never  seemed  to  under- 
go a   motnentary  eclipse.     I  have  seen  him  under  an 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKE31MAN.  131 

affliction  which  in  a  few  days  wrought  in  his  appearance 
the  change  of  years  ;  and  his  trust  was  like  a  rock,  his 
submission  entire.  Much  as  he  saw  of  the  crimes  and 
miseries  of  hfe,  no  doubt  of  the  merciful  purposes  of 
God  crossed  his  mind.  Some  ray  of  Divine  goodness 
streamed  forth  from  the  darkest  trials  and  events.  Un- 
doubtedly his  own  love  for  the  poor  helped  him  to  com- 
prehend, as  [ew  do,  how  God  loved  them.  The  whole 
creation  spoke  to  him  of  the  paternal  character  and  in- 
finite glory  of  its  Author.  His  filial  piety  called  forth 
in  him  powers  which  would  otherwise  have  slumbered. 
He  was  naturally  wanting  in  the  poetical  element.  He 
had  little  rehsh  for  music  or  the  fine  arts,  and  took  no 
great  pleasure  in  the  higher  works  of  imagination.  But 
his  piety  opened  his  eye,  ear,  heart,  to  the  manifesta- 
tions of  God  in  his  works,  revealed  the  beauty  which 
surrounded  him,  and  in  this  way  became  a  source  of 
sublime  joy.  On  such  a  mind  religious  controversies 
could  take  but  a  slight  hold.  He  outgrew  them,  and 
hardly  seemed  to  know  that  they  existed.  That  which 
pervades,  tranquilhzes,  and  exalts  the  souls  of  all  Chris- 
tians he  understood  ;  and  in  his  busy  life,  which  carried 
him  from  his  study,  he  was  willing  to  understand  nothing 
more. 

Congenial  with  this  cheerful  faith  was  the  spirit  of 
gratitude.  In  this  he  was  probably  the  more  eminent 
because  it  was  favored  by  his  temperament.  He  was 
naturally  happy.  There  were  next  to  no  seeds  of 
gloom,  depression,  in  his  nature.  Life,  as  he  first  knew 
it,  was  bright,  joyous,  unclouded  ;  and  to  this  cause 
mainly  the  volatility  of  his  early  years  was  to  be  as- 
cribed. As  the  magnet  searches  out  and  gathers  round 
itself  the  scattered  ore  with  which  it  has  affinity,  so  his 


L 


I 


132  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTEE 

spirit  selected  and  attached  Instinctively  to  itself  the 
more  cheerful  views  of  Providence.  In  such  a  nature 
piety  naturally  took  the  form  of  gratitude.  Thanks 
were  the  common  breathings  of  his  spirit.  His  lot 
seemed  to  him  among  the  most  favored  on  earth.  His 
blessings  did  not  wait  to  be  recalled  to  his  thoughts  by 
a  set,  labored  search.  They  started  up  of  themselves, 
and  stood  before  him  robed  in  celestial  light  by  associ- 
ation with  the  Goodness  which  bestowed  them. 

From  these  elements  of  his  piety  naturally  grew  up 
a  hope  of  future  glory,  progress,  happiness,  more  un- 
mixed than  I  have  known  in  others.  The  other  world 
is  commonly  said  to  throw  a  brightness  over  the  present. 
In  his  case  the  present  also  threw  a  brightness  over  the 
future.  His  constant  experience  of  God's  goodness 
awakened  anticipations  of  a  larger  goodness  hereafter. 
He  would  talk  with  a  sweUing  heart,  and  in  the  most 
genuine  language,  of  immortality,  of  heaven,  of  new 
access  to  God.  In  truth,  his  language  was  such  as 
many  good  men  could  not  always  join  in.  The  con- 
scious unworthiness  of  many  good  men  throws  occa- 
sional clouds  over  the  future.  But  no  cloud  seemed 
ever  to  dim  his  prospect ;  not  that  he  was  unconscious 
of  unworthiness  ;  not  that  he  thought  of  approaching 
Infinite  Purity  with  a  claim  of  merit  ;  such  a  feehng 
never  crossed  his  mind.  But  it  was  so  natural  to  him 
to  enjoy,  his  sense  of  God's  constant  goodness  was  so 
vivid,  and  Christ's  promises  so  accordant  with  his  ex- 
perience, that  heaven  came  to  him  as  a  reality  without 
the  ordinary  effort  which  the  faith  and  hope  of  most 
men  require. 

In  his  last  sickness  his  character  came  out  in  all  its 
beauty.     He   had  not  wholly   lost  the  natural   love  of 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  133 

life.  At  times,  when  unpromising  symptoms  seemed  to 
be  giving  way,  he  would  use  the  means  of  recovery 
with  hope.  But  generally  he  felt  himself  a  dying  man, 
whose  chief  work  was  finished,  who  had  little  to  do  with 
the  world  but  to  leave  it.  I  have  regretted  that  I  did 
not  take  notes  of  some  of  his  conversations.  It  was 
unsafe  for  him  to  talk,  as  the  least  excitement  increased 
his  burning  fever  ;  but  when  I  would  start  an  interesting 
topic  a  flood  of  thoughts  would  rush  into  his  mind  and 
compel  him  to  give  them  utterance.  The  future  state 
was,  of  course,  often  present  to  him  ;  and  his  concep- 
tions of  the  soul's  life  and  progress,  in  its  new  and  near- 
er relations  to  God,  to  Christ,  to  the  just  made  per- 
fect, seemed  to  transport  him,  for  a  time,  beyond  the 
darkness  and  pains  of  his  present  lot.  To  show  that 
tliere  w^as  no  morbidness  in  these  views,  I  ought  to  ob- 
serve that  they  were  mingled  with  the  natural  tastes  and 
feelings  which  had  grown  from  his  past  Hfe.  In  his 
short  seasons  of  respite  from  exhaustion  and  suffering 
he  would  talk  with  interest  of  the  more  important  events 
of  the  day,  and  would  seek  recreation  in  books  which 
had  formerly  entertained  him.  He  was  the  same  man 
as  in  health,  with  nothing  forced  or  unnatural  in  his  ele- 
vation of  mind.  He  had  always  taken  great  pleasure 
in  the  writings  of  the  moralists  of  antiquity,  and  perhaps 
the  last  book  I  put  into  his  hands  was  Cicero's  Tus- 
culan  Questions,  which  he  read  with  avidity  and  delight. 
So  comprehensive  was  his  spirit,  that,  whilst  Christ  was 
his  hope,  and  Christian  perfection  his  aspiration,  he  still 
rejoiced  to  discern  in  the  great  Roman,  on  whom  Chris- 
tian truth  had  not  yet  dawned,  such  deep  reverence  for 
the  majesty  of  virtue.  As  might  be  expected,  "  His 
ruling  passion  was  strong  in  death."     To  the  last  mo- 

VOL.    VI.  12 


134  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

ment  of  my  intercourse  with  him  the  poor  were  in  his 
heart.  As  he  had  given  them  his  life,  so  death  could 
not  divide  him  from  them. 

One  affecting  view  remains  to  be  given.  Dr.  Tuck- 
erman  was  a  martyr  to  his  cause.  That  his  life  was 
shortened  by  excessive  toil  cannot  be  doubted.  His 
friends  forewarned  him  of  this  result.  He  saw  the  dan- 
ger himself,  and  once  and  again  resolved  to  diminish 
his  labors  ;  but  when  he  retreated  from  the  poor  they 
followed  him  to  his  house,  and  he  could  not  resist  their 
supplicating  looks  and  tones.  To  my  earnest  and  fre- 
quent remonstrance  on  this  point  he  at  times  replied, 
that  his  ministry  might  need  a  victim,  that  labors  beyond 
his  strength  might  be  required,  to  show^  what  it  was  ca- 
pable of  effecting,  and  that  he  was  willing  to  suffer  and 
to  die  for  the  cause.  Living  thus,  he  grew  prematurely 
old.  His  walks  became  more  and  more  narrow.  Then 
he  was  imprisoned  at  home.  The  prostration  of  strength 
was  followed  by  a  racking  cough  and  burning  fever. 
As  we  have  seen,  his  last  sickness  was  a  bright  testi- 
mony to  his  piety.  But  its  end  was  sorrowful.  By  a 
mysterious  ordination  of  Providence,  the  capacity  of  suf- 
fering often  survives  unimpaired,  whilst  the  reason  and 
affections  seem  to  decay.  So  was  it  here.  In  the  last 
hours  of  our  friend  the  body  seemed  to  prevail  over  the 
power  of  thought.  He  died  in  fearful  pain.  He  was 
borne  amidst  agonies  into  the  higher  world.  At  length 
his  martyrdom  ceased  ;  and  who  of  us  can  utter  or  con- 
ceive the  blessedness  of  the  spirit  rising  from  this  thick 
darkness  into  the  light  of  heaven  ? 

Such  was  the  founder  of  the  Ministry  at  Large  in 
this  city;  a  man  whom  I  thoroughly  knew;  a  man  whose 
imperfections  I  could  not  but  know,  for  they  stood  out 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  135 

on  the  surface  of  his  character ;  but  who  had  a  great 
heart,  who  was  willingly  a  victim  to  the  cause  which  in 
the  love  and  fear  of  God  he  had  espoused,  and  who  has 
left  behind  him  as  a  memorial,  not  this  fleeting  tribute 
of  friendship,  but  an  institution  which  is  to  live  for  ages, 
and  which  entitles  him  to  be  ranked  among  the  benefac- 
tors of  this  city  and  the  world.  When  he  began  his 
work  he  had  no  anticipation  of  such  an  influence  and 
such  an  honor.  He  thought  that  he  was  devoting  him- 
self to  an  obscure  hfe.  He  did  not  expect  that  his 
name  would  be  heard  beyond  the  dwellings  of  the  poor. 
He  was  contented  with  believing  that  here  and  thefe  an 
individual  or  a  family  would  receive  strength,  light,  and 
consolation  from  his  ministry.  But  gradually  the  idea, 
that  he  was  beginning  a  movement  that  might  survive 
him,  and  might  more  and  more  repress  the  worst  social 
evils,  opened  on  his  mind.  He  saw  more  and  more 
clearly  that  the  Ministry  at  Large,  with  other  agencies, 
was  to  change  the  aspect  of  a  large  portion  of  society. 
It  became  his  deliberate  conviction,  and  one  which  he 
often  repeated,  that  great  cities  need  not  be  haunts  of 
vice  and  poverty  ;  that  in  this  city  there  were  now 
intelligence,  virtue,  and  piety  enough,  could  they  be 
brought  into  united  action,  to  give  a  new  intellectual 
and  moral  life  to  the  more  neglected  classes  of  society. 
In  this  faith  he  acted,  toiled,  suffered,  and  died.  His 
gratitude  to  God  for  sending  him  into  this  field  of  labor 
never  failed  him.  For  weeks  before  he  left  the  coun- 
try, never  to  return,  I  was  almost  the  only  visiter  whom 
he  had  strength  to  see  ;  and  it  was  a  joy  to  look  on  his 
pale,  emaciated  face  lighted  up  with  thankfulness  for  the 
work  which  had  been  given  him  to  do,  and  with  the 
hope   that  it  would  endure   and  grow  when  he  should 


136  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

sleep  in  the  dust.  From  such  a  hfe  and  such  a  death 
let  us  learn  to  love  our  poor  and  suffering  brethren  ; 
and  as  we  have  ability  let  us  send  to  them  faithful  and 
living  men,  whose  sympathy,  counsels,  prayers,  will 
assuage  sorrow,  awaken  the  conscience,  touch  the  heart, 
guide  the  young,  comfort  the  old,  and  shed  over  the 
dark  paths  of  this  life  the  brightness  of  the  life  to  come. 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  137 


APPENDIX. 


In  the  preceding  Discourse  I  have  not  spoken  very  dis- 
tinctly of  one  part  of  Dr.  Tuckerman's  character,  the 
strength  of  his  attachment  to  individuals.  He  was  not 
absorbed  in  one  great  object.  The  private  and  public 
affections  lived  together  in  him  harmoniously  and  with 
equal  fervor.  His  experience  of  life  had  not  the  common 
effect  of  chilling  his  early  enthusiasm  or  his  susceptibility 
of  ardent  attachment.  He  was  true  to  old  friends  and 
prepared  for  new  ones.  His  strong  interest  and  delight 
in  Dr.  Follen  and  Dr.  Spurzheim  showed  how  naturally 
his  heart  opened  itself  to  noble-minded  strangers.  From 
the  latter  his  mind  received  a  leaning  towards  phrenology. 
When  he  went  to  England  his  sympathies  created  a  home 
for  him  wherever  he  stayed.  Where  other  men  would 
have  made  acquaintance  he  formed  friendships.  One  of 
these  was  so  precious  to  him,  and  contributed  so  much  to 
the  happiness  of  both  parties,  that  it  deserves  notice  in  a 
memoir  of  him,  I  refer  to  his  friendship  with  Lady  By- 
ron. Of  his  college  classmates  there  were  others  as  well 
as  myself  who  enjoyed  much  of  his  affection  to  the  last. 
One  of  these  was  Jonathan  Phillips,  Esq.,  whom  he  ac- 
companied to  Europe,  and  who  had  a  true  reverence  for 
his  goodness.  The  other  was  Judge  Story,  so  eminent  as 
a  jurist  at  home  and  abroad.  While  the  preceding  Dis- 
course was  passing  through  the  press  I  wrote  to  the  latter, 
12* 


138  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

requesting  him  to  communicate  to  me  his  reminiscences  of 
our  friend  ;  and  with  characteristic  kindness  and  warmth 
of  heart  he  sent  me  the  following  letter,  written,  as  he 
says,  in  haste,  but  which  will  give  much  pleasure  to  all 
who  have  an  interest  in  the  deceased.  I  publish  it  the 
more  gladly  because  his  views  of  our  friend's  life  at  col- 
lege are  more  favorable  than  those  which  I  have  given. 


TO  THE  REV.  W.  E.  CHANNING,  D.  D. 

Cambridge,  April  10,  1841. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  —  I  comply  very  cheerfully  with  your 
request,  although  there  are  very  few  reminiscences  of  our 
late  lamented  classmate  an^  friend,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Tucker- 
man,  which  I  could  supply,  which  are  not  already  familiar 
to  your  mind.  During  our  collegiate  life  my  acquaintance 
with  him  was  but  slight  until  my  junior  year,  when  he  be- 
came my  chum  ;  and  so  pleasant  and  confidential  was  our 
intercourse  during  that  year  that  we  should  undoubtedly 
have  continued  chums  during  the  remainder  of  our  col- 
lege studies,  if  some  family  arrangements  had  not  made 
it  convenient  for  him  to  adopt  a  different  course.  The 
change,  however,  did  not  prove  the  slightest  interruption 
to  our  intercourse  and  friendship  ;  and  I  feel  great  gratifi- 
cation in  saying,  that,  from  that  period  until  the  close  of 
his  life,  I  am  not  conscious  that  there  was  on  either  side 
an}^  abatement  of  mutual  affection  and  respect  ;  and  when- 
ever and  wherever  we  met,  it  was  with  the  warm  welcome 
of  early  and  unsuspected  friendship. 

Many  of  the  characteristics  so  fully  developed  in  his 
later  life  were  clearly  manifested  when  our  acquaintance 
first  commenced.  During  his  college  life  he  did  not  seem 
to  have  any  high  relish  for  most  of  the  course  of  studies 
then  pursued.  He  had  an  utter  indifference,  if  not  dislike, 
to  mathematics,  and  logic,  and  metaphysics  ;  and  but  a 
slight  inclination  for  natural  philosophy.  He  read  the  pre- 
scribed classical  writers  with  moderate  diligence,  not  so 
much  as  a  matter  of  taste  or  ambition  as  of  duty  and  as  a 
task  belonging  to  the  recitation-room,  the  Latin  being  uni- 
formly preferred  to  the  Greek.     And  yet  I  should  not  say, 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  1  39 

that  he  was  idle  or  indolent,  or  without  a  strong  desire  of 
improvement.  His  principal  pleasure  lay  in  a  devotion  to 
the  more  open  and  facile  branches  of  literature,  and  es- 
pecially of  English  literature.  History,  moral  philosophy, 
poetry,  the  drama,  and  the  class  of  studies  generally  known 
by  the  name  of  belles-lettres,  principally  attracted  his  at- 
tention ;  and  in  these  his  reading  was  at  once  select  and 
various.  The  writings  of  Addison,  Johnson,  and  Goldsmith 
were  quite  familiar  to  him.  The  historical  works  of  Robert- 
son, and  Gillies,  and  Ferguson,  and  other  authors  distin- 
guished in  that  day,  as  well  as  the  best  biographical  works, 
were  within  the  range  of  his  studies.  In  poetry  he  was  more 
attached  to  those  who  addressed  the  feelings  and  imagina- 
tion than  to  those  who  addressed  the  understanding,  and 
moralized  their  song  in  the  severe  language  of  the  con- 
densed expression  of  truth,  or  the  pungent  pointedness  of 
satire,  or  the  sharp  sallies  of  wit.  Gray's  Bard  and  Col- 
lins's  Ode  to  the  Passions  were  his  favorites  ;  and,  above 
all,  Shakspeare,  in  whose  writings  he  was  thoroughly  well 
read  ;  and  he  often  declaimed  many  of  the  most  stirring  pas- 
sages with  the  spirit  and  interest  of  the  dramatic  action  of 
the  stage.  Young's  Night  Thoughts  seemed  to  be  almost 
the  only  work  which,  from  its  deep  and  touching  appeals, 
and  elevated  devotion,  and  darkened  descriptions  of  life, 
and  sudden  bursts  of  eloquence  and  enthusiasm,  made 
him  feel  at  that  time  the  potency  of  genius  employed  in 
unfolding  religious  truths.  He  possessed,  also,  a  singular 
readiness  and  facility  in  composition,  perhaps  what  would 
by  some  persons  be  deemed  a  dangerous  facility.  What 
he  wrote  he  threw  off  at  once  in  the  appropriate  language, 
rarely  correcting  his  first  sketch,  and  not  ambitious  of  con- 
densing or  refining  the  materials  by  successive  efforts. 

I  have  thus  far  spoken  of  his  tastes  and  intellectual  pur- 
suits and  attachments  in  our  college  life.  But  what  I  most 
delight  to  dwell  on  are  his  warm-hearted  benevolence, 
his  buoyant  and  cheerful  temper,  his  active,  sympathetic 
charity,  his  gentle  and  frank  manners,  and,  above  all,  that 
sunniness  of  soul  which  cast  a  bright  light  over  all  hours, 
and  made  our  fireside  one  of  the  most  pleasant  of  all  social 
scenes.  So  uniform,  indeed,  was  his  kindness  and  desire 
to  oblige  that  I  do  not  remember  a  single  instance  in  which 
he  ever  betrayed  either  a  hastiness  of  temper  or  a  flash 
of  resentment.     He  was  accustomed  to  distribute  a  per- 


140  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

tion  of  his  weekly  allowance  among  the  poor,  and  the 
friendless,  and  the  suffering.  His  love  of  morals  and 
virtue  was  as  ardent  as  it  was  elevated.  His  conduct  was 
blameless  and  pure.  I  do  not  believe  that  he  ever  wrote 
a  word  which,  dying,  he  could  have  wished  to  blot  on  ac- 
count of  impurity  of  thought  or  allusion  ;  and  his  con- 
versation was  at  all  times  that  which  might  have  been 
heard  by  the  most  delicate  and  modest  ears.  Occasionally 
his  buoyancy  of  spirits  might  lead  him  to  indulge  in  giddy 
dreaminess,  or  romantic  fervors,  such  as  belong  to  the 
untried  hopes  and  inexperience  of  youth.  But  it  might 
with  truth  be  said,  that,  even  if  he  had  any  failings  in  this 
respect,  they  leaned  to  virtue's  side. 

I  confess,  however,  that  the  opening  of  his  literary  ca- 
reer did  not  then  impress  me  with  the  notion,  that  he 
would  afterwards  attain  in  his  profession  and  character 
the  eminence  to  which  every  one  will  now  deem  him  justly 
entitled.  He  seemed  to  want  that  steadiness  of  purpose 
which  looks  difficulties  in  the  face  and  overcomes  obsta- 
cles because  a  high  object  lies  behind  them.  His  mind 
touched  and  examined  many  subjects,  but  was  desultory 
and  varying  in  its  efforts.  I  was  in  this  view  mistaken  ; 
and  I  overlooked  the  probable  effects,  upon  a  mind  like 
his,  of  deep  religious  sensibility,  and,  if  I  may  so  say,  of 
an  enthusiasm  for  goodness,  when  combined  with  a  spirit 
of  glowing  benevolence. 

When  we  quitted  college  our  opportunities  of  t"amiliar 
mtercourse,  from  the  wide  diversity  of  our  pursuits,  as  well 
as  from  our  local  distance,  were  necessarily  diminished.  I 
sav/  him  only  at  distant  intervals  while  he  was  engaged  in 
his  preparatory  studies  for  the  ministry  ;  and  when,  on 
entering  his  study  one  day,  I  found  him  reading  Gries- 
bach's  edition  of  the  New  Testament  with  intense  atten- 
tion, and  in  his  comments  on  it,  in  our  conversation,  dis- 
coursing with  a  force  and  discrimination  which  showed  the 
earnestness  with  which  he  was  endeavouring  to  master 
his  profession,  a  new  li«3jht  struck  upon  me,  and  I  began 
to  perceive  that  he  was  redeeming  his  time,  and  disciplin- 
ing his  thoughts  to  the  highest  purposes.  During  his 
residence,  after  his  settlement,  at  Chelsea,  I  saw  him 
frequently,  either  at  Salem,  where  I  then  resided,  or  at 
Chelsea,  where  I  took  occasion,  on  my  visits  to  Boston, 
to  pass  some  time  at  his  house.     His  improvement  was 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  141 

constantly  visible  ;  his  studies  more  expanded  ;  his  knowl- 
edge more  exact,  as  well  as  various  ;  and  his  piety,  that 
beautiful  ornament  so  deeply  set  in  his  character,  shining 
forth,  with  its  deep,  and  mild,  and  benignant  light,  with  a 
peculiar  attractiveness,  1  remember  that  for  a  long  time 
Tucker's  Light  of  Nature  was  one  of  his  favorite  studies  ; 
and  he  made  it  the  theme  both  of  his  praise  and  his  criticism 
at  many  of  our  meetings.  It  was  while  he  was  at  Chelsea, 
the  minister  of  a  comparatively  small  and  isolated  parish, 
that  he  nourished  and  matured  the  great  scheme  of  his  life 
and  ambition,  the  Ministry  at  Large  for  the  Poor.  I  need 
not  dwell  upon  its  beneficial  effects,  or  its  extraordinary 
success.  I  deem  it  one  of  the  most  glorious  triumphs  of 
Christian  charity  over  the  cold  and  reluctant  doubts  of 
popular  opinion.  The  task  was  full  of  difficulties,  to  ele- 
vate the  poor  into  a  self-consciousness  of  their  duty  and 
destiny,  and  to  bring  the  rich  into  sympathy  with  them  ; 
to  relieve  want  and  suffering  without  encouraging  indo- 
lence or  sloth  ;  to  give  religious  instruction  where  it  was 
most  needed,  freely  and  without  stint,  and  thus  to  widen 
the  sphere  of  virtue,  as  well  as  the  motives  to  its  practice, 
among  the  desolate  and  the  desponding.  It  v/as,  in  fact, 
doing  what  Burke  has  so  beautifully  expressed  ;  — it  was 
to  remember  the  forgotten. 

But  I  am  wandering  from  my  purpose,  and  speaking  to 
one  who  fully  understands  and  has  eagerly  supported  this 
excellent  institution  ;  and  yet  I  think  you  will  agree  with 
me  in  saying,  that  its  establishment  and  practical  success 
were  mainly  owing  to  the  uncompromising  zeal  and  un- 
tiring benevolence  of  Dr.  Tuckerman.  It  was  the  crown- 
ing labor  of  his  life,  and  entitles  him  to  a  prominent  rank 
among  the  benefactors  of  mankind. 

I  do  not  knov/  any  one  who  exemplified  in  his  life  and 
conduct  a  more  fervent  or  unaffected  piety  than  Dr. 
Tuckerman  did.  It  was  cheerful,  confiding,  fixed,  and 
uniform.  It  was  less  an  intellectual  exercise  than  a  hom- 
age of  the  heart.  It  sprung  from  a  profound  feeling  of 
the  mercy  and  goodness  of  God.  It  was  reverential  ; 
but  at  the  same  time  filial.  His  death  was  in  perfect 
keeping  with  his  life  ;  it  was  a  good  man's  end,  with  a 
good  man's  Christian  resignation,  hope,  and  confidence. 

It  was  in  the  summer  which  preceded  his  death,  that, 
on  his  recoverv  from  a  severe  illness,  he  rode  out  to  Cam- 


142  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

bridge.  He  came  to  my  house,  and  in  his  warm,  yet 
anxious  manner,  said  to  me,  "1  could  not  pass  your 
house,  my  friend,  without  desiring  to  see  you  once  more 
before  I  died.  I  have  been  very  ill,  and,  as  I  thought, 
very  near  to  death.  But  I  was  tranquil  and  resigned, 
and  ready  to  depart,  if  it  was  God's  good  pleasure.  And 
I  felt  no  fears."  He  stayed  with  me  some  time,  as  long 
as  I  would  allow  him  in  his  then  feeble  state  of  health. 
He  talked  over  our  long  friendship,  our  youthful  doings, 
and  our  advancing  years.  And  when  we  parted  he  bade 
me  a  most  affectionate  farewell.  It  was  our  final  farewell. 
I  saw  his  face  no  more. 

I  send  you,  my  dear  sir,  these  hasty  sketches,  such  as 
they  are,  with  a  flying  pen.  I  cannot  suppose  that  there 
is  any  thing  in  them  which  would  not  have  occurred  more 
forciljly  to  others  who  knew  Dr.  Tuckerman.  But  I  was 
unwilling  to  withhold  my  tribute  to  the  great  excellences 
of  his  character,  his  zeal  in  all  good  works,  and  his  dif- 
fusive benevolence. 

''  His  saltern  accumulem  donis,  et  fungar  inani 
Munere." 

Believe  me,  truly  and  affectionately. 

Your  Classmate  and  Friend, 

Joseph  Story. 


A  friend  has  kindly  translated  the  following  from  the 
Introduction  to  Baron  Degerando's  late  work  on  Public 
Charity  : 

In  a  work  recently  published  in  Boston,  by  the  respect- 
able Dr.  Tuckerman,  we  have  a  very  remarkable  exem- 
plification of  this  assiduous,  enlightened  charity,  quicken- 
ed by  religious  sentiment.  Dr.  Tuckerman  holds  the 
offices  of  minister  at  large  and  distributer  of  charity  to 
the  indigent  people  of  the  city  of  Boston,  and  renders  to 
a  society  of  which  he  is  the  delegate  a  yearly  account  of 
his  ministrations  and  observations.  A  work  that  he  has 
just  published  contains  the  substance   of  a  series  of  pe- 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  143 

riodical  reports,  which  throw  invaluable  light  upon  the 
condition  and  wants  of  the  indigent,  and  the  influence 
which  an  enlightened  charity  can  exert.  As  we  read,  we 
follow  the  steps  of  the  minister  of  the  gospel,  carrying 
assistance  and  consolation  into  the  bosom  of  families 
overwhelmed  with  misfortune,  and  raising  the  debased, 
reforming  the  depraved.  In  such  a  school  we  learn  the 
secrets  of  the  art  of  benevolence.  The  author  finds  oc- 
casion, in  treating  this  subject,  to  rise  to  the  highest 
views  of  the  theory  and  rules  of  this  art.  He  makes  his 
readers  feel  all  the  power  of  Christianity  for  the  moral 
improvement  of  the  lower  classes  ;  he  compares  the  legis- 
lation in  his  own  country  in  respect  to  the  poor  with  that 
of  England  and  Scotland  ;  discusses  the  rights  of  the  in- 
digent ;  and  compares  the  relative  situations  of  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  in  order  to  the  discovery  of  their  mutual  du- 
ties. He  particularly  discriminates  between  poverty  and 
pauperism,  and  points  out  the  grievous  eflfects  of  the  er- 
ror which  confounds  them. 


The  following  Biographical  Sketch  of  Dr.  Tuckerman 
is  taken  from  an  article  upon  his  life  and  character,  by 
Rev.  E.  S.  Gannett,  in  the  "Monthly  Miscellany  of  Re- 
ligion and  Letters,"  July,  1840. 

Joseph  Tuckerman  was  born  in  Boston,  January  18, 
1778.  Of  the  early  instructions  of  his  mother,  a  truly 
pious  woman,  he  always  spoke  with  peculiar  gratitude. 
His  youth  was  passed  in  preparation  for  college  partly  at 
Phillips  Academv  in  Andover,  and  partly  in  the  family  of 
Rev.  Mr.  Thacher,  of  Dedham.  In  1794  he  entered 
Harvard  College,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1798,  as 
one  of  the  class  to  which  Judge  Story  and  Rev.  Dr.  Chan- 
ning  also  belonged.  His  preparatory  studies  for  the  min- 
istry were  pursued  under  the  direction  of  Rev.  Mr. 
Thacher,  of  Dedham.  Soon  after  he  began  to  preach  he 
received  an  invitation  to  become  the  successor  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Pavson  at  Chelsea,  where  he  was  ordained  Novem- 


144  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

ber  4,  1801.  In  June,  1803,  he  was  married  to  a  daugh- 
ter of  the  late  Samuel  Parltman.  Esq.,  of  this  city,  who 
died  in  the  summer  of  1807.  In  November,  1808,  he 
was  again  married,  to  Miss  Sarah  Gary,  of  Chelsea,  who, 
after  thirty-one  years  of  the  most  happy  connexion,  was 
taken  to  a  higher  life,  leaving  a  remembrance  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  a  large  circle  of  friends.  In  1816  Mr.  Tucker- 
man  visited  England,  in  the  hope  of  deriving  benefit  to 
his  health,  but  was  absent  only  a  short  time  ;  after  his 
return  he  suffered  much  from  dyspepsy,  and  never  recov- 
ered the  full  tone  of  health.  He  continued  in  the  ac- 
tive discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  ministry  till  the  spring 
of  1826,  when  he  felt  the  necessity  of  relinquishing  in 
some  measure  the  labors  of  the  pulpit,  and  his  mind, 
which  had  become  much  interested  in  the  condition  of 
the  neglected  poor  of  our  cities,  sought  an  opportunity 
of  conducting  a  ministry  peculiarly  suited  to  their  wants. 
On  the  4th  of  November,  1826,  just  twenty-five  years 
from  the  day  of  his  ordination,  he  preached  his  farewell 
sermon  at  Chelsea,  and  immediately  commenced  his  ser- 
vice in  Boston,  to  which  place  he  soon  removed  with  his 
family.  He  was  at  first  assisted  in  this  work  by  a  private 
association  of  gentlemen,  who  had  for  some  time  held 
stated  meetings  for  their  own  religious  improvement  and 
for  conference  upon  the  means  of  benevolent  action  ;  but 
he  was  very  soon  appointed  a  Minister  at  Large  in  this 
city  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Unita- 
rian Association,  who  became  responsible  for  the  small 
salary  which  he  received,  and  which  for  several  years 
was  raised  by  the  contributions  of  ladies  in  our  different 
congregations.  In  1828  the  Friend-Street  Chapel  was 
erected  for  his  use,  as  a  place  of  worship  for  those  whom 
he  had  brought  to  a  sense  of  the  value  of  religious  in- 
stitutions, but  who  were  unable  to  pay  for  the  privileges 
of  the  sanctuary.  His  untiring  zeal  in  this  ministry,  the 
success  of  his  labors  among  the  poor,  and  the  extent  of 
his  influence  over  the  rich,  evinced  particularly  in  the 
confidence  which  they  reposed  in  him  as  the  almoner  of 
their  charities,  were  subjects  of  too  familiar  remark  to 
need  any  illustration.  The  ardor  with  which  he  prose- 
cuted his  labors  was  too  much  for  his  bodily  strength,  and 
in  1833  he  again  visited  Europe,  in  company  with  his 
friend,   Mr.    Phillips,  and  passed   a  year  abroad,  princi- 


OF  THE  REV.  DR.  TUCKERMAN.  145 

pally  in  England,  where  he  formed  many  valuable  friend- 
ships, and  was  instrumental  in  awakening  much  interest 
in  his  favorite  subject,  the  moral  elevation  of  the  neglect- 
ed and  vicious  poor.  On  his  return  he  found  the  Ministry 
at  Large  placed  on  a  more  stable  foundation  than  he  had 
left  it,  the  Benevolent  Fraternity  of  Churches  having 
been  organized  with  a  special  view  to  its  support.  A 
more  commodious  chapel  was  erected,  and  younger  la- 
borers were  associated  with  him.  His  own  ability  to 
render  active  service  was,  however,  irretrievably  im- 
paired. The  winter  of  1836-7  he  was  obliged  to  spend 
in  the  milder  climate  of  St.  Croix,  from  which  he  return- 
ed, as  it  was  thought,  much  benefited.  But  the  vital  force 
was  too  nearly  exhausted.  Repeatedly  prostrated  by- 
disease,  he  rose  only  to  show  the  steadfastness  of  those 
principles  and  purposes  which  filled  his  soul,  and  sunk 
again  as  if  to  prove  the  constancy  of  the  faith  which 
seemed  to  gain  new  power  from  suffering  and  bereave- 
ment. From  a  severe  illness  in  the  autumn  of  1839  he 
so  far  revived,  that,  after  much  hesitation,  a  voyage  to 
Cuba  was  recommended  as  the  only  means  of  prolong- 
ing his  life.  He  sailed  for  Havana,  and  soon  sought  the 
interior  of  the  island  ;  but  a  short  trial  proved  the  hope- 
lessness of  the  attempt  to  recruit  an  exhausted  frame, 
and  he  returned,  with  the  daughter  who  was  his  devoted 
companion,  to  Havana,  where,  after  some  days  of  ex- 
treme debility,  attended  with  great  sufiiering,  he  died, 
April  20,  1840,  in  his  sixty-third  year. 

Dr.  Tuckerman  received  the  honorary  degree  of  Doc- 
tor in  Divinity  from  Harvard  University  in  18*26.  It  was 
a  tribute  to  his  ministerial  fidelity.  His  published  writings 
are  few,  excepting  those  which  arose  from  his  connexion 
with  the  Ministry  at  Large.  One  of  the  last  services  he 
rendered  to  this  institution  was  the  preparation  of  a  vol- 
ume, which  we  fear  has  not  obtained  a  wide  circulation, 
upon  "The  Principles  and  Results  of  the  Ministry  at 
Large." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Central  Board  of  the  Benevolent 
Fraternity  of  Churches,  May  10,  1840,  the  following  res- 
olution was  unanimously  passed  : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  death  of  Rev.  Joseph  Tuckerman,  D.  D., 
demands  on  the  part  of  this  Board  an  expression  of  their  deep 
sense  of  the  value  of  his  services  to  this  community,  and  that, 

VOL.   VI.  13 


146  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  DR.  TUCKERMAN. 

recognizing  in  him  the  first  incumbent,  if  not  the  founder,*  of  the 
present  institution  of  the  Ministry  at  Large,  they  cannot  but  ac- 
knowledge the  usefuhiess  of  a  life  the  last  years  of  which  were 
devoted  to  this  institution,  in  whose  service  his  strength  was  ex- 
hausted ;  and  while  they  submit  to  the  Divine  will  that  has  de- 
prived them  of  the  counsels  and  labors  of  this  Christian  philan- 
thropist, they  would  cherish  his  spirit,  and  hold  up  his  example 
before  themselves  and  others  as  a  motive  and  a  guide  to  future 
exertions  in  behalf  of  the  neglected  and  the  sinful." 

A  resolution  similar  in  character  was  passed  at  the  an- 
nual meeting  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association, 
May  26,  1840,  namely  : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  death  of  Rev.  Dr.  Tuckerman,  senior 
Minister  at  Large  in  this  city,  an  institution  once  under  the  care 
of  this  Association,  demands  the  expression  of  our  sincere  respect 
for  his  memory,  our  deep  gratitude  for  his  services  ;  and  while 
we  regret  that  his  life  of  eminent  usefulness  and  distinguished 
Christian  philanthropy  is  closed,  we  would  bow  with  submission 
to  the  Divine  will,  and  gather  from  his  example  lessons  to  quick- 
en and  guide  our  own  efforts  in  the  cause  of  human  happiness 
and  virtue." 

Dr.  Tuckerman 's  remains  were  brought  to  this  country, 
and  the  funeral  service  was  attended  in  King's  Chapel, 
where  he  had  been  accustomed  to  worship  during  the  last 
years  of  his  life,  in  the  afternoon  of  May  26.  They  were 
afterwards  deposited  at  Mount  Auburn. 

*  In  strictness  of  speech  it  might  be  doubted  if  Dr.  Tuckerman  should 
be  styled  the  foi/mler  of  the  Ministry  at  Large,  as  gratuitous  instruction  to 
the  poor  had  been  given  both  by  laymen  and  clergymen  before  his  removal 
to  Boston.  In  1822  the  association  to  which  we  have  adverted  had  estab- 
lished evening  religious  lectures  for  those  who  attended  no  place  of  wor- 
ship during  the  day  ;  and  Rev.  Dr.  Jenks  was  employed  by  another  society 
in  visiting  and  preaching  to  the  poor.  When  Dr.  Tuckerman  came  to 
Boston  his  own  mind  had  not  clearly  defined  its  plans  of  operation,  and  the 
idea  which  was  subsequently  expanded  into  the  institution  of  the  Ministry 
at  Large  had- not,  perhaps,  proceeded  beyond  a  general  purpose  of  devoting 
himself  to  the  spiritual  benefit  of  those  who  had  no  religious  teacher  or 
friend.  The  Committee  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association  must  also 
share  in  the  honor  of  establishing  this  ministry.  But  as  it  was  his  perse- 
verance and  success  that  gave  both  form  and  efficiency  to  the  institution, 
it  is  but  a  small  deviation  from  accuracy  to  call  him  its  founder. 


THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

AN  ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  BEFORE 

THE  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY  COMPANY  OF  PHILADELPHIA, 
May  U;  184L 


TO  MT  VENERABLE  FRIEND, 

JOHN   VAUGHAN,   Esa., 

WHO  HAS  MADE  THE  PAST  GENERATION  AND  THE  PRESENT  Hlff  DEBTOR! 

BY  UNWEARIED  WELL-DOING, 

THIS  ADDRESS 
IS  AFFECTIONATELT  AND  RESPECTFULLY  INSCRIBED. 

W.  E.  C. 


ADDRESS  ON  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Mercantile  Library  Company, 

I  BEG  you  to  consider  my  appearance  in  this  place 
as  an  expression  of  my  interest  in  this  and  in  kindred  in- 
stitutions. I  welcome  them  as  signs  of  the  times,  as 
promises  and  means  of  increased  intellectual  activity. 
I  shall  be  glad,  if  a  good  word  or  a  friendly  effort  on 
ray  part  can  serve  them.  I  know  that  the  lectures  de- 
livered before  such  societies  are  called  superficial  ;  but 
this  does  not  discourage  me.  All  human  productions, 
even  those  of  genius,  are  very  superficial,  compared 
with  the  unfathomable  depths  of  truth.  The  simple 
question  is,  Do  these  lectures  rouse  the  mind  to  new 
action  ?  Do  they  give  it  new  objects  of  thought,  and 
excite  a  thirst  for  knowledge  ?  I  am  sure  that  they  do  ; 
and  therefore,  though  the  field  is  sometimes  called  hum- 
ble, I  enter  it  with  pleasure. — Will  you  allow  me  to 
observe,  that  to  render  lectures  useful  one  condition  is 
necessary  ;  they  must  be  frank,  honest,  free.  He  who 
speaks  must  speak  what  he  thinks  ;  speak  courteously, 
but  uncompromisingly.  What  makes  our  communica- 
tions unprofitable  in  this  country  is,  the  dread  of  giving 
offence,  now  to  the  majority,  and  now  to  the  fashionable 
or  refined.  We  speak  without  force  because  not  true 
13* 


150  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

to  our  convictions.  A  lecturer  will,  of  course,  desire 
to  wound  no  man's  prejudices  or  feelings  ;  but  his  first 
duly  is  to  truth  ;  his  chief  power  lies  in  simple,  natural, 
strong  utterance  of  what  he  believes  ;  and  he  should  put 
confidence  in  his  hearers  that  the  tone  of  manly  sincerity 
will  be  responded  to  by  candor  and  good-will. 

The  subject  to  which  I  call  your  attention  is,  the 
Present  x\ge  ;  a  vast  theme,  demanding  volumes.  An 
age  is  needed  to  expound  an  age  ;  and,  of  course,  little 
is  to  be  expected  in  a  brief  hour.  I  profess  no  great 
understanding  of  the  subject,  though  I  have  given  it 
much  thought.  In  truth,  it  cannot  be  grasped,  as  yet, 
by  the  highest  intellect.  This  age  is  the  result,  issue, 
of  all  former  ages.  All  are  pouring  themselves  into  it. 
The  struggles,  passions,  discoveries,  revolutions  of  all 
former  time  survive  in  their  influences  on  the  present 
moment.  To  interpret  the  present  thoroughly  we  must 
understand  and  unfold  all  the  past.  This  work  I  shall 
not  undertake.  I  am  not  now  to  be  an  historian.  Do 
not  fear  that  I  shall  compel  you  to  journey  backward 
to  the  Deluge  or  to  Paradise.  I  shall  look  only  at  the 
present  ;  nor  do  I  think  of  unfolding  all  the  present.  I 
shall  seize  on  a  single  characteristic  of  our  age,  if  not  the 
profoundest,  yet  the  most  prominent,  and  the  best  fitted 
to  an  address  like  the  present.  In  performing  this  task 
my  aim  will  be  to  speak  the  simple  truth.  I  wish  to  say 
what  the  age  is,  not  to  be  its  advocate  ;  and  yet  I  hope 
to  lead  you  to  look  tenderly  and  trustfully  on  it,  to  love 
it,  and  to  resolve,  with  generous,  stout  hearts,  that  you 
will  serve  it,  as  far  as  God  may  give  you  ability. 

In  looking  at  our  age  I  am  struck  inniiediately  with 
one  commanding  characteristic,  and  that  is,  the  tendency 
in  all  its  movements  to  expansion,  to  diffusion,  to  univer- 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  151 

sality.  To  this  I  ask  your  attention.  This  tendency  is 
directly  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  exclusiveness,  restric- 
tion, narrowness,  monopoly,  which  has  prevailed  in  past 
ages.  Human  action  is  now  freer,  more  unconfined. 
All  goods,  advantages,  helps,  are  more  open  to  all. 
The  privileged,  petted  individual  is  becoming  less,  and 
the  human  race  are  becoming  more.  The  multitude  is 
rising  from  the  dust.  Once  we  heard  of  the  few,  now 
we  hear  of  the  many  ;  once  of  the  prerogatives  of  a  part, 
now  of  the  rights  of  all.  We  are  looking  as  never  be- 
fore through  the  disguises,  envelopments  of  ranks  and 
classes  to  the  common  nature  which  lies  below  them, 
and  are  beginning  to  learn  that  every  being  who  partakes 
of  it  has  noble  powers  to  cultivate,  solemn  duties  to  per- 
form, inalienable  rights  to  assert,  a  vast  destiny  to  accom- 
plish. (The  grand  idea  of  humanity,  of  the  importance  of 
man  as  man,  is  spreading  silently,  but  surely.  Not  that 
the  worth  of  the  human  being  is  at  all  understood  as  it 
should  be  ;  but  the  truth  is  glimmering  through  the  dark- 
ness. \  A  faint  consciousness  of  it  has  seized  on  the  pub- 
lic mind.  Even  the  most  abject  portions  of  society  are 
visited  by  some  dreams  of  a  better  condition  for  which  they 
wei-e  designed.  The  grand  doctrine,  that  every  human 
being  should  have  the  means  of  self-culture,  of  progress 
in  knowledge  and  virtue,  of  health,  comfort,  and  happiness, 
of  exercising  the  powders  and  affections  of  a  man,  this  is 
slowly  taking  its  place  as  the  highest  social  truth.  ^  That 
the  world  was  made  for  all,  and  not  for  a  few  ;  that  so- 
ciety is  to  care  for  all  ;  that  no  human  being  shall  perish 
but  through  his  own  fault  ;  that  the  great  end  of  govern- 
ment is,  to  spread  a  shield  over  the  rights  of  all,  —  these 
propositions  are  growing  into  axioms,  and  the  spirit  of 
them  is  coming  forth  in  all  the  departments  of  life. 


1  52  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

If  we  look  at  the  various  movements  of  our  age,  we 
shall  see  in  them  this  tendency  to  universality  and  dif- 
fusion. Look  first  at  Science  and  Literature.  Where 
is  Science  now  ^  Locked  up  in  a  few  colleges,  or  royal 
societies,  or  inaccessible  volumes  ?  Are  its  experi- 
ments mysteries  for  a  few  privileged  eyes  ?  Are  its 
poitals  guarded  by  a  dark  phraseology  which  to  the 
multitude  is  a  foreign  tongue  ?  No  ;  Science  has  now 
left  her  retreats,  her  shades,  her  selected  company  of 
votaries,  and  with  familiar  tone  begun  the  work  of  in- 
structing the  race.  Through  the  press,  discoveries  and 
theories  once  the  monopoly  of  philosophers  have  be- 
come the  property  of  the  multitude.  Its  professors, 
heard  not  long  ago  in  the  university  or  some  narrow 
school,  now  speak  in  the  mechanic  institute.  The  doc- 
trine, that  the  laborer  should  understand  the  principles 
of  his  art,  should  be  able  to  explain  the  laws  and  pro- 
cesses which  he  turns  to  account,  that,  instead  of  work- 
ing as  a  machine,  he  should  join  intelhgence  to  his  toil, 
is  no  longer  listened  to  as  a  dream.  Science,  once  the 
greatest  of  distinctions,  is  becoming  popular.  A  lady 
gives  us  Conversations  on  Chemistry,  revealing  to  the 
minds  of  our  youth  vast  laws  of  the  universe  which  fifty 
years  ago  had  not  dawned  on  the  greatest  minds.  The 
school-books  of  our  children  contain  grand  views  of  the 
Creation.  There  are  parts  of  our  country  in  which  Ly- 
ceums spring  up  in  almost  every  village  for  the  purpose 
of  mutual  aid  in  the  study  of  natural  science.  The  char- 
acteristic of  our  age,  then,  is  not  the  improvement  of 
science,  rapid  as  this  is,  so  much  as  its  extension  to 
all  men. 

The  same  characteristic  will  appear,  if  we  inquire  into 
the  use  now  made  of  science.     Is  it  simply  a  matter  of 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  153 


speculation,  a  topic  of  discourse,  an  employment  of  the 
intellect  ?  In  this  case,  the  multitude,  with  all  their 
means  of  instruction,  would  find  in  it  only  a  hurned 
gratification.  But  one  of  the  distinctions  of  our  time  is, 
that  science  has  passed  from  speculation  into  life.  In- 
deed, it  is  not  pursued  enough  for  its  intellectual  and 
contemplative  uses.  It  is  sought  as  a  mighty  power,  by 
which  nature  is  not  only  to  be  opened  to  thought,  but  to 
be  subjected  to  our  needs.  It  is  conferring  on  us  that 
dominion  over  earth,  sea,  and  air,  which  was  prophesied 
in  the  first  command  given  to  man  by  his  Maker  ;  and 
this  dominion  is  now  employed,  not  to  exalt  a  few,  but 
to  multiply  the  comforts  and  ornaments  of  life  for  the 
multitude  of  men.  Science  has  become  an  inexhaustible 
mechanician  ;  and  by  her  forges,  and  mills,  and  steam- 
cars,  and  printer's  presses,  is  bestowing  on  millions,  not 
only  comforts,  but  luxuries  which  were  once  the  distinc- 
tion of  a  few. 

Another  illustration  of  the  tendency  of  science  to  ex- 
pansion and  universality  may  be  found  in  its  aims  and 
objects.  Science  has  burst  all  bounds  and  is  aiming  to 
comprehend  the  universe,  and  thus  it  multiphes  fields  of 
inquiry  for  all  orders  of  minds.  There  is  no  province 
of  nature  which  it  does  not  invade.  Not  content  with 
exploring  the  darkest  periods  of  human  history,  it  goes 
behind  the  birth  of  the  human  race,  and  studies  the 
stupendous  changes  which  our  globe  experienced  for 
hundred  of  centuries,  to  become  prepared  for  man's 
abode.  Not  content  with  researches  into  visible  nature, 
it  is  putting  forth  all  its  energies  to  detect  the  laws  of  in- 
visible and  imponderable  matter.  Difficulties  only  pro- 
voke it  to  new  efforts.  It  would  lay  open  the  secrets 
of  the   polar  ocean  and  of  untrodden  barbarous  lands. 


154  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

Above  all,  it  investigates  the  laws  of  social  progress,  of 
arts  and  institutions  of  government  and  political  econo- 
my, proposing  as  its  great  end  the  alleviation  of  all  hu- 
man burdens,  the  weal  of  all  the  members  of  the  human 
race.  In  truth,  nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  our 
age  than  the  vast  range  of  inquiry  which  is  opening  more 
and  more  to  the  multitude  of  men.  Thought  frees  the 
old  bounds  to  which  men  used  to  confine  themselves.  It 
holds  nothing  too  sacred  for  investigation.  It  calls  the 
past  to  account ;  and  treats  hoary  opinions  as  if  they 
were  of  yesterday's  growth.  No  reverence  drives  it 
back.  No  great  name  terrifies  it.  The  foundations  of 
what  seems  most  settled  must  be  explored.  Undoubted- 
ly this  is  a  perilous  tendency.  Men  forget  the  hmits  of 
their  powers.  They  question  the  infinite,  the  unsearch- 
able, with  an  audacious  self-reliance.  They  shock  pious 
and  revering  minds,  and  rush  into  an  extravagance  of 
doubt  more  unphilosophical  and  foolish  than  the  weakest 
credulity.  Still,  in  this  dangerous  wildness  we  see 
what  I  am  stating,  the  tendency  to  expansion  in  the 
movements  of  thought. 

T  have  hitherto  spoken  of  science  ;  and  what  is  true 
of  science  is  still  more  true  of  Literature.  Books  are 
now  placed  within  reach  of  all.  Works  once  too  costly 
except  for  the  opulent  are  now  to  be  found  on  the 
laborer's  shelf.  Genius  sends  its  light  into  cottages. 
The  great  names  of  literature  are  become  household 
words  among  the  crowd.  Every  party,  religious  or 
political,  scatters  its  sheets  on  all  the  winds.  We  may 
lament,  and  too  justly,  the  small  comparative  benefit 
as  yet  accomplished  by  this  agency  ;  but  this  ought  not 
to  surprise  or  discourage  us.  In  our  present  stage  of 
improvement,  books   of  little  worth,   deficient   in  taste 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  155 

and  judgment,  and  ministering  to  men's  prejudices  and 
passions,  will  almost  certainly  be  circulated  too  freely. 
Men  are  never  very  wise  and  select  in  the  exercise  of 
a  new  power.  Mistake,  error,  is  the  discipline  through 
which  we  advance.  It  is  an  undoubted  fact,  that,  silent- 
ly, books  of  a  higher  order  are  taking  place  of  the  worth- 
less. Happily,  the  instability  of  the  human  mind  works 
sometimes  for  good  as  well  as  evil.  Men  grow  tired  at 
length  even  of  amusements.  Works  of  fiction  cease  to 
interest  them  ;  and  they  turn  from  novels  to  books 
which,  having  their  origin  in  deep  principles  of  our  na- 
ture, retain  their  hold  of  the  human  mind  for  ages.  At 
any  rate,  we  see  in  the  present  diffusion  of  literature 
the  tendency  to  universality  of  which  I  have  spoken. 

The  same  tendency  will  appear,  if  we  consider  the 
kind  of  literature  which  is  obtaining  the  widest  favor. 
The  works  of  genius  of  our  age  breathe  a  spirit  of  uni- 
versal sympathy.  The  great  poet  of  our  times,  Words- 
worth, one  of  the  few  who  are  to  live,  has  gone  to  com- 
mon life,  to  the  feelings  of  our  universal  nature,  to  the 
obscure  and  neglected  portions  of  society,  for  beautiful 
and  touching  themes.  Nor  ought  it  to  be  said,  that  he 
has  shed  over  these  the  charms  of  his  genius  ;  as  if  in 
themselves  they  had  nothing  grand  or  lovely.  Genius 
is  not  a  creator,  in  the  sense  of  fancying  or  feigning 
what  does  not  exist.  Its  distinction  is,  to  discern  more 
of  truth  than  common  minds.  Tt  sees  under  disguises 
and  humble  forms  everlasting  beauty.  This  it  is  the 
prerogative  of  Wordsworth  to  discern  and  reveal  in  the 
ordinary  walks  of  life,  in  the  common  human  heart. 
He  has  revealed  the  loveliness  of  the  primitive  feelings, 
of  the  universal  affections  of  the  human  soul.  The 
grand  truth  which  pervades  his  poetry  is,  that  the  beau- 


156  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

tiful  is  not  confined  to  the  rare,  the  new,  the  distant,  to 
scenery  and  modes  of  life  open  only  to  the  few  ;  but 
that  it  is  poured  forth  profusely  on  the  common  earth 
and  sky,  that  it  gleams  from  the  loneliest  flower,  that  it 
lights  up  the  humblest  sphere,  that  the  sweetest  affec- 
tions lodge  in  lowly  hearts,  that  there  is  sacredness, 
dignity,  and  loveliness  in  lives  which  few  eyes  rest  on, 
that,  even  in  the  absence  of  all  intellectual  culture,  the 
domestic  relations  can  quietly  nourish  that  disinterest- 
edness which  is  the  element  of  all  greatness,  and  with- 
out which  intellectual  power  is  a  splendid  deformity. 
Wordsworth  is  the  poet  of  humanity  ;  he  teaches  reve- 
rence for  our  universal  nature  ;  he  breaks  down  the 
factitious  barriers  between  human  hearts. 

The  same  is  true,  in  an  inferior  degree,  of  Scott, 
w^hose  tastes,  however,  were  more  aristocratic.  Scott 
had  a  childish  love  of  rank,  titles,  show,  pageants,  and, 
in  general,  looked  with  keener  eye  on  the  outward  life 
than  into  the  soul.  Still,  he  had  a  human  heart  and 
sympathized  with  his  race.  With  few  exceptions,  he 
was  just  to  all  his  human  brethren.  A  reconciling  spir- 
it breathes  through  his  writings.  He  seizes  on  the  in- 
teresting and  beautiful  features  in  all  conditions  of  life  ; 
gives  us  bursts  of  tender  and  noble  feelings  even  from 
rude  natures  ;  and  continually  knits  some  new  tie  be- 
tween the  reader  and  the  vast  varieties  of  human  nature 
which  start  up  under  his  teeming  pen.  He  delighted, 
indeed,  in  Highland  chiefs,  in  border  thieves  and  mur- 
derers, in  fierce  men  and  fierce  encounters.  But  he 
had  an  eye  to  catch  the  stream  of  sweet  affections,  as 
it  wound  its  way  through  humble  life.  What  light  has 
Jeanie  Deans  shed  on  the  path  of  the  obscure  !  He 
was   too  wanting  in    the  religious  sentiment  to  compre- 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  157 

hend  the  solemn  bearing,  the  stern  grandeur  of  the  Pu- 
ritans. But  we  must  not  charge  with  narrowness  a 
writer  who  embodied  in  a  Jewish  maiden  his  highest 
conceptions  of  female  nobleness. 

Another  writer  illustrating  the  liberalizing,  all-harmon- 
izing tendency  of  our  times  is  Dickens,  whose  genius 
has  sought  and  found  subjects  of  thrilling  interest  in  the 
passions,  sufferings,  virtues  of  the  mass  of  the  people. 
He  shows  that  life  in  its  rudest  forms  may  wear  a  tragic 
grandeur  ;  that,  amidst  follies  and  sensual  excesses  pro- 
voking laughter  or  scorn,  the  moral  feelings  do  not 
wholly  die  ;  and  that  the  haunts  of  the  blackest  crimes 
are  sometimes  hghted  up  by  the  presence  and  influence 
of  the  noblest  souls.  He  has,  indeed,  greatly  erred  m 
turning  so  often  the  degradation  of  humanity  into  matter 
of  sport ;  but  the  tendency  of  his  dark  pictures  is,  to 
awaken  sympathy  with  our  race,  to  change  the  unfeel- 
ing indifference  which  has  prevailed  towards  the  de- 
pressed multitude  into  sorrowful  and  indignant  sensibil- 
ity to  their  wrongs  and  woes. 

The  remarks  now  made  on  literature  might  be  ex- 
tended to  the  Fine  Arts.  In  these  we  see,  too,  the  ten- 
dency to  universahty.  It  is  said,  that  the  spirit  of  the 
great  artists  has  died  out ;  but  the  taste  for  their  works 
is  spreading.  By  the  improvements  of  engraving,  and 
the  invention  of  casts,  the  genius  of  the  great  masters  is 
going  abroad.  Their  conceptions  are  no  longer  pent 
up  in  galleries  open  to  but  few,  but  meet  us  in  our 
homes,  and  are  the  household  pleasures  of  millions. 
Works  designed  for  the  halls  and  eyes  of  emperors, 
popes,  and  nobles,  find  their  way,  in  no  poor  represen- 
tations, into  humble  dwellings,  and  sometimes  give  a 
consciousness  of  kindred  powers  to  the  child  of  pover- 

VOL.    VI.  14 


158  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

ty.  The  art  of  drawing,  which  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  most  of  the  fine  arts,  and  is  the  best  education  of 
the  eye  for  nature,  is  becoming  a  branch  of  common 
education,  and  in  some  countries  is  taught  in  schools  to 
which  all  classes  are  admitted. 

I  am  reminded  by  this  remark  of  the  most  striking 
feature  of  our  times,  and  showing  its  tendency  to  uni- 
versality, and  that  is,  the  unparalleled  and  constantly 
\/'  accelerated  diffusion  of  Education.  This  greatest  of 
arts,  as  yet  little  understood,  is  making  sure  progress, 
because  its  principles  are  more  and  more  sought  in  the 
common  nature  of  man  ;  and  the  great  truth  is  spread- 
ing, that  every  man  has  a  right  to  its  aid.  }  Accordingly 
education  is  becoming  the  work  of  nations.  Even  in 
the  despotic  governments  of  Europe  schools  are  open 
for  every  child  without  distinction  ;  and  not  only  the 
elements  of  reading  and  writing,  but  music  and  drawing 
are  taught,  and  a  foundation  is  laid  for  future  progress 
in  history,  geography,  and  physical  science.  The  great- 
est minds  are  at  work  on  popular  education.  The  rev- 
enues of  states  are  applied  most  liberally,  not  to  the 
universities  for  the  few,  but  to  the  common  schools. 
Undoubtedly  much  remains  to  be  done  ;  especially  a 
new  rank  in  society  is  to  be  given  to  the  teacher  ;  but 
even  in  this  respect  a  revolution  has  commenced,  and 
we  are  beginning  to  look  on  the  guides  of  the  young  as 
the  chief  benefactors  of  mankind. 

I  thought  that  I  had  finished  my  illustrations  on  this 
point ;  but  there  has  suddenly  occurred  to  me  another 
sign  of  the  tendency  to  universal  intellectual  action  in 
this  country,  a  sign  which  we  are  prone  to  smile  at,  but 
which  is  yet  worthy  of  notice.  I  refer  to  the  common- 
ness among  us  of  Public    Speaking.      If  we  may  trust 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  159 

our  newspapers,  we  are  a  nation  of  orators.  Every 
meeting  overflows  with  eloquence.  Men  of  all  condi- 
tions find  a  tongue  for  public  debate.  Undoubtedly 
there  is  more  sound  than  sense  in  our  endless  speeches 
before  all  kinds  of  assemblies  and  societies.  But  no 
man,  I  think,  can  attend  our  public  meetings  without 
being  struck  with  the  force  and  propriety  of  expression 
in  multitudes  whose  condition  has  confined  them  to  a 
very  imperfect  culture.  This  exercise  of  the  intellect, 
which  has  almost  become  a  national  characteristic,  is 
not  to  be  undervalued.  Speech  is  not  merely  the  dress, 
as  it  is  often  called,  but  the  very  body  of  thought.  It 
is  to  the  intellect  what  the  muscles  are  to  the  principle 
of  physical  life.  The  mind  acts  and  strengthens  itself 
through  words.  It  is  a  chaos,  till  defined,  organized  by 
language.  The  attempt  to  give  clear,  precise  utterance 
to  thought  is  one  of  the  most  effectual  processes  of 
mental  discipline.  It  is,  therefore,  no  doubtful  sign  of 
the  growing  intelligence  of  a  people,  when  the  power 
of  expression  is  cultivated  extensively  for  the  purpose 
of  acting  on  multitudes.  We  have  here  one  invaluable 
influence  of  popular  institutions.  They  present  at  the 
same  moment  to  a  w^hole  people  great  subjects  of 
thought,  and  bring  multitudes  to  the  earnest  discussion 
of  them.  Here  are,  indeed,  moral  dangers  ;  but  still, 
strong  incitements  to  general  intellectual  action.  It  is 
in  such  stirring  schools,  after  all,  that  the  mind  of  a 
people  is  chiefly  formed.  Events  of  deep  general  in- 
terest quicken  us  more  than  formal  teaching  ;  and  by 
these  the  civilized  world  is  to  be  more  and  more  trained 
to  thought. 

Thus  we   see   in   the    intellectual  movements   of  our 
times  the  tendency  to  expansion,  to  universality  ;  and 


160  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

this  must  continue.  It  is  not  an  accident,  or  an  inex 
plicable  result,  or  a  violence  on  nature  ;  it  is  founded  in 
eternal  truth.  Every  mind  was  made  for  growth,  for 
knowledge  ;  and  its  nature  is  sinned  against  when  it  is 
doomed  to  ignorance.  The  divine  gift  of  intelligence 
was  bestowed  for  higher  uses  than  bodily  labor,  tlian  to 
make  hewers  of  wood,  drawers  of  water,  ploughmen, 
or  servants.  Every  being  so  gifted  is  intended  to  ac- 
quaint himself  with  God  and  his  works,  and  to  perform 
wisely  and  disinterestedly  the  duties  of  life.  Accord- 
ingly, when  we  see  the  multitude  of  men  beginning  to 
thirst  for  knowledge,  for  intellectual  action,  for  some- 
thing more  than  an  animal  life,  we  see  the  great  design 
of  nature  about  to  be  accomplished  ;  and  society  having 
received  this  impulse  will  never  rest  till  it  shall  have 
taken  such  a  form  as  will  place  within  every  man's 
reach  the  means  of  intellectual  culture.  This  is  the 
revolution  to  which  we  are  tending  ;  and  without  this  all 
outward  political  changes  would  be  but  children's  play, 
leaving  the  great  work  of  society  yet  to  be  done. 

I  have  now  viewed  the  age  in  its  Intellectual  aspects. 
If  we  look  next  at  its  Religious  movements,  we  shall 
see  in  these  the  same  tendency  to  universality.  It  is 
more  and  more  understood  that  religious  truth  is  every 
man's  property  and  right ;  that  it  is  committed  to  no 
order  or  individual,  to  no  priest,  minister,  student,  or 
sage,  to  be  given  or  kept  back  at  will  ;  but  that  every 
man  may  and  should  seek  it  for  himself;  that  every 
man  is  to  see  with  his  own  mind,  as  well  as  with  his 
own  eyes  ;  and  that  God's  illuminating  spirit  is  alike 
promised  to  every  honest  and  humble  seeker  after  truth. 
This  recognition  of  every  man's  right  of  judgment  ap- 
pears in  the  teachings  of  all  denominations  of  Christians. 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  161 

In  all,  the  tone  of  authority  Is  giving  place  to  that  of 
reason  and  persuasion.  Men  of  all  ranks  are  more  and 
more  addressed  as  those  who  must  weigh  and  settle  for 
themselves  the  grandest  truths  of  religion. 

The  same  tendency  to  universality  is  seen  in  the 
generous  toleration  which  marks  our  times,  in  compari- 
son with  the  past.  Men,  in  general,  cannot  now  endure 
to  think  that  their  own  narrow  church  holds  all  the  good- 
ness on  the  earth.  Religion  is  less  and  less  regarded  as 
a  name,  a  form,  a  creed,  a  church,  and  more  and  more 
as  the  spirit  of  Christ,  which  works  under  all  forms  and 
all  sects.  True,  much  intolerance  remains  ;  its  separat- 
ing walls  are  not  fallen  ;  but,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
they  no  longer  reach  to  the  clouds.  Many  of  them  have 
crumbled  away,  till  the  men  whom  they  sever  can  shake 
hands,  and  exchange  words  of  fellowship,  and  recognize 
in  one  another's  faces  the  t'eatures  of  brethren. 

At  the  present  day  the  grand  truth  of  religion  is  more 
and  more  brought  out  ;  I  mean  the  truth,  that  God  is  the 
Universal  Father,  that  every  soul  is  infinitely  precious 
to  him,  that  he  has  no  favorites,  no  partial  attachments, 
no  respect  of  persons,  that  he  desires  alike  the  virtue 
and  everlasting  good  of  all.  In  the  city  of  Penn  I  can- 
not but  remember  the  testimony  to  this  truth  borne  by 
George  Fox  and  his  followers,  who  planted  themselves 
on  the  grand  principle,  that  God's  illuminating  spirit  is 
shed  on  every  soul,  not  only  within  the  bounds  of  Chris- 
tendom, but  through  the  whole  earth.  This  universal, 
impartial  love  of  God  is  manifested  to  us  more  and  more 
by  science,  which  reveals  to  us  vast,  all-pervading  laws 
of  nature,  administered  with  no  favoritism  and  designed 
for  the  good  of  all.  I  know  that  this  principle  is  not 
universally  received.  Men  have  always  been  inclined 
14* 


162  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

to  frame  a  local,  partial,  national,  or  sectarian  God,  to 
shut  up  the  Infinite  One  in  some  petty  enclosure  ;  but 
at  this  moment  larger  views  of  God  are  so  far  extended 
that  they  illustrate  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

If  we  next  consider  by  whom  religion  is  taught,  we 
shall  see  the  same  tendency  to  diffusion  and  universality. 
Religious  teaching  is  passing  into  all  hands.  It  has  ceased 
to  be  a  monopoly.  For  example,  what  an  immense 
amount  of  instruction  is  communicated  in  Sunday 
schools  !  These  are  spreading  over  the  Christian  world, 
and  through  these  the  door  of  teaching  is  open  to 
crowds,  to  almost  all,  indeed,  who  would  bear  a  part  in 
spreading  religion.  In  like  manner  associations  of  vast 
extent  are  springing  up  in  our  cities  for  the  teaching  of 
the  poor.  By  these  means  woman,  especially,  is  be- 
coming an  evangelist.  She  is  not  only  a  priestess  in 
her  own  home,  instilling  with  sweet,  loving  voice  the 
first  truths  of  religion  into  the  opening  mind,  but  she 
goes  abroad  on  missions  of  piety.  Woman,  in  one  age 
made  man's  drudge,  and  in  another  his  toy,  is  now  sharing 
more  and  more  with  him  the  highest  labors.  Through 
the  press,  especially,  she  is  heard  far  and  wide.  The 
press  is  a  mightier  power  than  the  pulpit.  Books  outstrip 
the  voice  ;  and  woman,  availing  herself  of  this  agency, 
becomes  the  teacher  of  nations.  In  churches,  w^here 
she  may  not  speak,  her  hymns  are  sung  ;  the  inspirations 
of  her  genius  are  felt.  Thus  our  age  is  breaking  down 
the  monopolies  of  the  past. 

But  a  more  striking  illustration  remains.  One  of  the 
great  distinctions  of  our  times  is  found  in  the  more  clear 
and  vital  perception  of  the  truth,  that  the  universal,  im- 
partial love  which  is  the  glory  of  God  is  the  characteris- 
tic spirit  and  glory  of  Christianity.  To  this  we  owe  the 
extension  of  philanthropic  ana  religious  effort  oeyond  all 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  163 

former  experience.  How  much  we  are  better  on  the 
whole  than  former  times  I  do  not  say  ;  but  that  benevo- 
lence is  acting  on  a  larger  scale,  in  more  various  forms, 
to  more  distant  objects,  this  we  cannot  deny.  Call  it 
pretension,  or  enthusiasm,  or  what  you  will,  the  fact  re- 
mains ;  and  it  attests  the  diffusive  tendencies  of  our 
times.  Benevolatice  now  gathers  together  her  armies. 
Vast  associations  are  spread  over  whole  countries  for 
assailing  evils  which  it  is  thought  cannot  be  met  by  the 
single-handed.  There  is  hardly  a  form  of  evil  which 
has  not  awakened  some  antagonist  effort.  Associated 
benevolence  gives  eyes  to  the  blind  and  ears  to  the 
deaf,  and  is  achieving  even  greater  wonders  ;  that  is,  it 
approaches  the  mind  without  the  avenues  of  eye  and  ear, 
and  gives  to  the  hopelessly  blind  and  deaf  the  invaluable 
knowledge  which  these  senses  afford  to  others.  Benevo- 
lence now  shuts  out  no  human  being,  however  low,  from 
its  regard.  It  goes  to  the  cell  of  the  criminal  with 
words  of  hope,  and  is  laboring  to  mitigate  public  punish- 
ment, to  make  it  the  instrument,  not  of  vengeance,  but 
reform.  It  remembers  the  slave,  pleads  his  cause  with 
God  and  man,  recognizes  in  him  a  human  brother,  re- 
spects in  him  the  sacred  rights  of  humanity,  and  claims 
for  him,  not  as  a  boon,  but  as  a  right,  that  freedom  with- 
out which  humanity  withers  and  God's  child  is  degraded 
into  a  tool  or  a  brute.  Still  more,  benevolence  now  is 
passing  all  limits  of  country  and  ocean.  It  would  send 
our  own  best  blessing  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  It 
would  make  the  wilderness  of  heathenism  bloom,  and 
join  all  nations  in  the  bonds  of  one  holy  and  loving  faith. 
Thus,  if  we  look  at  the  religious  movements  of  the  age, 
we  see  in  them  that  tendency  to  diffusion  and  universahty 
which  I  have  named  as  its  most  striking  characteristic. 


164  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

Let  me  briefly  point  out  this  same  tendency  in  Govern- 
ment. Here,  indeed,  it  is  too  obvious  for  illustration. 
To  what  is  the  civilized  world  tending  ?  To  popular 
institutions,  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  to  the  influence 
of  the  people,  of  the  mass  of  men,  over  public  afi:airs. 
A  little  while  ago  and  the  people  were  unknown  as  a 
power  in  the  state.  Now  they  are  getting  all  power  into 
their  hands.  Even  in  despotisms,  where  they  cannot 
act  through  institutions,  they  act  through  public  opinion. 
Intelligence  is  strength  ;  and  in  proportion  as  the  many 
grow  intelligent  they  must  guide  the  world.  Kings  and 
nobles  fill  less  and  less  place  in  history  ;  and  the  names 
of  men  w^ho  once  were  lost  amidst  the  glare  of  courts 
and  titles  are  now  written  there  imperishably.  Once 
history  did  not  know  that  the  multitude  existed,  except 
when  they  wiere  gathered  together  on  the  field  of  battle 
to  be  sabred  and  shot  down  for  the  glory  of  their  mas- 
ters. Now  they  are  coming  forward  into  the  foreground 
of  her  picture.  It  is  now  understood  that  government 
exists  for  one  end,  and  one  alone  ;  and  that  is,  not  the 
glory  of  the  governor,  not  the  pomp  and  pleasure  of  a 
few,  but  the  good,  the  safety,  the  rights  of  all.  Once 
government  was  an  inherited  monopoly,  guarded  by  the 
doctrine  of  divine  right,  of  an  exclusive  commission 
from  the  Most  High.  Now  ofiice  and  dignity  are  thrown 
open  as  common  things,  and  nations  are  convulsed  by 
the  multitude  of  competitors  for  the  prize  of  public 
power.  Once  the  policy  of  governments  had  no  higher 
end  than  to  concentrate  property  into  a  few  hands,  and 
to  confirm  the  relation  of  dependent  and  lord.  Now  it 
aims  to  give  to  each  the  means  of  acquiring  property, 
and  of  carving  out  his  fortune  for  himself.  Such  is  the 
political   current  of  our  times.     Many  look  on  it  with 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  165 

dark  forebodings,  as  on  a  desolating  torrent ;  while  others 
hail  it  as  a  fertilizing  stream.  But  in  one  thing  both 
agree ;  whether  torrent  or  stream,  the  mighty  current 
exists,  and  overflows,  and  cannot  be  confined  ;  and  it 
shows  us  in  the  political,  as  in  the  other  movements  of 
our  age,  the  tendency  to  universality,  to  diffusion. 

I  shall  notice  but  one  more  movement  of  the  age  as 
indicating  the  tendency  to  universality,  and  this  is,  its  In- 
dustry. How  numberless  are  the  forms  which  this  takes  ! 
Into  how  many  channels  is  human  labor  pouring  itself 
forth  !  How  widely  spread  is  the  passion  for  acquisition, 
not  for  simple  means  of  subsistence,  but  for  wealth  ! 
What  vast  enterprises  agitate  the  community  !  What  a 
rush  into  all  the  departments  of  trade  !  How  next  to 
universal  the  insanity  of  speculation  !  What  new  arts 
spring  up  !  Industry  pierces  the  forests,  and  startles 
with  her  axe  the  everlasting  silence.  To  you.  Gentle- 
men, commerce  is  the  commanding  interest;  and  this 
has  no  limits  but  the  habitable  world.  It  no  longer 
creeps  along  the  shore,  or  lingers  in  accustomed  tracks  ; 
but  penetrates  into  every  inlet,  plunges  into  the  heart  of 
uncivilized  lands,  sends  its  steam-ships  up  unexplored 
rivers,  girdles  the  earth  with  railroads,  and  thus  breaks 
down  the  estrangements  of  nations.  Commerce  is  a  noble 
calling.  It  mediates  between  distant  nations,  and  makes 
men's  w^ants,  not,  as  formerly,  stimulants  to  war,  but 
bonds  of  peace.  The  universal  intellectual  activity  of 
which  I  have  spoken  is  due,  in  no  small  degree,  to  com- 
merce, which  spreads  the  thoughts,  inventions,  and  writ- 
ings of  great  men  over  the  earth,  and  gathers  scien- 
tific and  literary  men  everywhere  into  an  intellectual  re- 
public. So  it  carries  abroad  the  missionary,  the  Bible, 
the  Cross,  and  is  giving  universality  to   true   religion. 


166  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

Gentlemen,  allow  me  to  express  an  earnest  desire  and 
hope  that  the  merchants  of  this  country  will  carry  on 
their  calling  with  these  generous  views.  Let  them  not 
pursue  it  for  themselves  alone.  Let  them  rejoice  to  spread 
improvements  far  and  wide,  and  to  unite  men  in  more 
friendly  ties.  Let  them  adopt  maxims  of  trade  which 
will  establish  general  confidence.  Especially,  in  their 
intercourse  with  less  cultivated  tribes,  let  them  feel 
themselves  bound  to  be  harbingers  of  civilization.  Let 
their  voyages  be  missions  of  humanity,  useful  arts,  sci- 
ence, and  religion.  It  is  a  painful  thought,  that  com- 
merce, instead  of  enlightening  and  purifying  less  privileged 
communities,  has  too  often  made  the  name  of  Christian 
hateful  to  them,  has  carried  to  the  savage,  not  our  useful 
arts  and  mild  faith,  but  weapons  of  war  and  the  intoxi- 
cating draught.  I  call  not  on  God  to  smite  with  his 
lightnings,  to  overwhelm  with  his  storms,  the  accursed 
ship  which  goes  to  the  ignorant,  rude  native,  freighted 
with  poison  and  death  ;  which  goes  to  add  new  ferocity 
to  savage  life,  new  licentiousness  to  savage  sensuality. 
I  have  learned  not  to  call  down  fire  from  heaven.  But, 
in  the  name  of  humanity,  of  religion,  of  God,  I  implore 
the  merchants  of  this  country  not  to  use  the  light  of  a 
higher  civilization  to  corrupt,  to  destroy  our  uncivilized 
brethren.  Brethren  they  are,  in  those  rude  huts,  in  that 
wild  attire.  Establish  with  them  an  intercourse  of  use- 
fulness, justice,  and  charity.  Before  they  can  under- 
stand the  name  of  Christ,  let  them  see  his  spirit  in  those 
by  whom  it  is  borne.  It  has  been  said,  that  the  com- 
merce of  our  country  is  not  only  corrupting  uncivilized 
countries,  but  that  it  wears  a  deeper,  more  damning 
stain  ;  that,  in  spite  of  the  laws  of  the  land  and  the  pro- 
test of  nations,  it  sometimes   lends  itself  to   the  slave- 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  167 

trade  ;  that,  by  its  capital,  and  accommodations,  and 
swift  sailers,  and  false  papers,  and  prostituted  flag,  it 
takes  part  in  tearing  the  African  from  his  home  and 
native  shore,  and  in  dooming  him,  first  to  the  horrors 
of  the  middle  passage,  and  then  to  the  hopelessness  of 
perpetual  bondage.  Even  on  men  so  fallen  I  call  down 
no  curse.  May  they  find  forgiveness  from  God  through 
the  pains  of  sincere  repentance  ;  but,  continuing  what 
they  are,  can  I  help  shrinking  from  them  as  among  the 
most  infamous  of  their  race  ? 

Allow  me  to  say  a  word  to  the  merchants  of  our 
country  on  another  subject.  The  time  is  come  when 
they  are  particularly  called  to  take  yet  more  generous 
views  of  their  vocation,  and  to  give  commerce  a  uni- 
versahty  as  yet  unknown.  I  refer  to  the  juster  princi- 
ples which  are  gaining  ground  on  the  subject  of  free 
trade,  and  to  the  growing  disposition  of  nations  to  pro- 
mote it.  Free  trade  !  —  this  is  the  plain  duty  and  plain 
interest  of  the  human  race.  To  level  all  barriers  to 
free  exchange  ;  to  cut  up  the  system  of  restriction,  root 
and  branch  ;  to  open  every  port  on  earth  to  every  pro- 
duct ;  this  is  the  office  of  enhghtened  humanity.  To 
this  a  free  nation  should  especially  pledge  itself.  Free- 
dom of  the  seas  ;  freedom  of  harbours  ;  an  intercourse 
of  nations,  free  as  the  winds  ;  —  this  is  not  a  dream  of 
philanthropists.  We  are  tending  towards  it,  and  let  us 
hasten  it.  Under  a  wiser  and  more  Christian  civihza- 
tion  we  shall  look  back  on  our  present  restrictions  as 
we  do  on  the  swaddling  bands  by  which  in  darker  times 
the  human  body  was  compressed.  The  growing  free- 
dom of  trade  is  another  and  glorious  illustration  of  the 
tendency  of  our  age  to  universality. 


168  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

I  have  thus  aimed  to  show  in  the  principal  movements 
of  our  time  the  character  of  diffusion  and  universahty, 
and  in  doing  this  I  have  used  language  implying  my  joy 
m  this  great  feature  of  our  age.  But  you  will  not  sup- 
pose that  I  see  in  it  nothing  but  good.  Human  affairs 
admit  no  unmixed  good.  This  very  tendency  has  its 
perils  and  evils.  To  take  but  one  example  ;  the  open- 
ing of  vast  prospects  of  wealth  to  the  multitude  of  men 
has  stirred  up  a  fierce  competition,  a  wild  spirit  of  spec- 
ulation, a  feverish,  insatiable  cupidity,  under  which  fraud, 
bankruptcy,  distrust,  distress  are  fearfully  multiplied,  so 
that  the  name  of  American  has  become  a  by-word  be- 
yond the  ocean.  I  see  the  danger  of  the  present  state 
of  society,  perhaps  as  clearly  as  any  one.  But  still  I 
rejoice  to  have  been  born  in  this  age.  It  is  still  true 
that  human  nature  was  made  for  growth,  expansion  ; 
this  is  its  proper  life,  and  this  must  not  be  checked  be- 
cause it  has  perils.  The  child,  when  it  shoots  up  into 
youth,  exchanges  its  early  repose  and  security  for  new 
passions,  for  strong  emotions,  w^hich  are  full  of  danger  ; 
but  would  we  keep  him  for  ever  a  child  ?  Danger  we 
cannot  avoid.  It  is  a  grand  element  of  human  life.  We 
always  walk  on  precipices.  It  is  unmanly,  unwise,  it 
shows  a  want  of  faith  in  God  and  humanity,  to  deny  to 
others  and  ourselves  free  scope  and  the  expansion  of 
our  best  powers  because  of  the  possible  collisions  and 
pains  to  be  feared  from  extending  activity.  Many,  in- 
deed, sigh  for  security  as  the  supreme  good.  But  God 
intends  us  for  something  better,  for  effort,  conflict,  and 
progress.  And  is  it  not  well  to  live  in  a  stirring  and 
mighty  world,  even  though  we  suffer  from  it  ?  If  we 
look  at  outward  nature,  we  find  ourselves  surrounded 
with  vast   and  fearful   elements,  air,  sea,  and  fire,  which 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  169 

sometimes  burst  all  bounds,  and  overwhelm  man  and  his 
labors  in  ruin.  But  who  of  us  would  annihilate  these 
awful  forces,  would  make  the  ocean  a  standing  pool, 
and  put  to  silence  the  loud  blast,  in  order  that  life  may 
escape  every  peril  ?  This  mysterious,  infinite,  irresis- 
tible might  of  nature,  breaking  out  in  countless  forms 
and  motions,  makes  nature  the  true  school  for  man,  and 
gives  it  all  its  interest.  In  the  soul  still  mightier  forces 
are  pent  up,  and  their  expansion  has  its  perils.  But 
all  are  from  God,  who  has  blended  with  them  checks, 
restraints,  balances,  reactions,  by  which  all  work  to- 
gether for  good.  Let  us  never  forget,  that,  amidst  this 
fearful  stir,  there  is  a  paternal  Providence,  under  which 
the  education  of  our  race  has  gone  on,  and  a  higher 
condition  of  humanity  has  been  achieved. 

There  are,  however,  not  a  few  who  have  painful  fears 
of  evil  from  the  restless,  earnest  action  which  we  have 
seen  spreading  itself  more  and  more  through  all  depart- 
ments of  society.  They  call  the  age  wild,  lawless,  pre- 
sumptuous, without  reverence.  All  men,  they  tell  us, 
are  bursting  their  spheres,  quitting  their  ranks,  aspiring 
selfishly  after  gain  and  preeminence.  The  blind  mul- 
titude are  forsaking  their  natural  leaders.  The  poor, 
who  are  the  majority,  are  contriving  against  the  rich. 
Still  more,  a  dangerous  fanaticism  threatens  destruction 
to  the  world  under  the  name  of  Reform  ;  society  tot- 
ters ;  property  is  shaken  ;  and  the  universal  freedom  of 
thought  and  action,  of  which  so  many  boast,  is  the  pre- 
cursor of  social  storms  which  only  despotism  can  calm. 
Such  are  the  alarms  of  not  a  few  ;  and  it  is  right  that 
fear  should  utter  its  prophecies,  as  well  as  hope.  But 
it  is  the  true  office  of  fear  to  give  a  wise  direction  to 
human  efibrt,  not  to  chill  or  destroy  it.     To  despair  of 

VOL.    VI.  15 


170  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

ihe  race,  even  in  the  worst  times,  is  unmanly,  unchris- 
tian. How  much  more  so  in  times  like  the  present  ! 
What  I  most  lament  in  these  apprehensions  is,  the  utter 
distrust  of  human  nature  which  they  discover.  Its  high- 
est powers  are  thought  to  be  given  only  to  be  restrained. 
They  are  thought  to  be  safe  only  when  in  fetters.  To 
me,  there  is  an  approach  to  impiety  in  thinking  so  mean- 
ly of  God's  greatest  work.  Human  nature  is  not  a 
tiger  which  needs  a  constant  chain.  In  this  case  it  is 
the  chain  which  makes  the  tiger.  It  is  the  oppressor 
who  has  made  man  fit  only  for  a  yoke. 

When  I  look  into  the  great  movements  of  the  age, 
particularly  as  manifested  in  our  own  country,  they  seem 
to  me  to  justify  no  overwhelming  fear.  True,  they  are 
earnest  and  wide  spreading  ;  but  the  objects  to  which 
they  are  directed  are  pledges  against  extensive  harm. 
For  example,  ought  the  general  diffusion  of  science  and 
literature  and  thought  to  strike  dread  ?  Do  habits  of 
reading  breed  revolt  ?  Does  the  astronomer  traverse 
the  skies,  or  the  geologist  pierce  the  earth,  to  gather 
materials  for  assault  on  the  social  state  ?  Does  the 
study  of  nature  stir  up  rebeUion  against  its  Author  ?  Is 
it  the  lesson  whicli  men  learn  from  history,  that  they  are 
to  better  their  condition  by  disturbing  the  state  ?  Does 
the  reading  of  poetry  train  us  to  insurrection  .''  Does 
the  diffusion  of  a  sense  of  beauty  through  a  people  in- 
cline them  to  tumult  ?  Are  not  works  of  genius  and 
the  fine  arts  soothing  influences  ?  Is  not  a  shelf  of 
books  in  a  poor  man's  house  some  pledge  of  his  keep- 
mg  the  peace  ?  It  is  not  denied  that  thought,  in  its 
freedom,  questions  and  assails  the  holiest  truth.  But  is 
truth  so  weak,  so  puny,  as  to  need  to  be  guarded  by 
bayonets  from  assault  ?    Has  truth  no  beauty,  no  might? 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  ]7l 

Has  the  human  soul  no  power  to  weigh  its  evidence,  to 
reverence  its  grandeur  ?  Besides,  does  not  freedom  of 
thought,  when  most  unrestrained,  carry  a  conservative 
power  in  itself  ?  In  such  a  state  of  things  the  erring  do 
not  all  embrace  the  same  error.  Whilst  truth  is  one 
and  the  same,  falsehood  is  infinitely  various.  It  is  a 
house  divided  against  itself,  and  cannot  stand.  Error 
soon  passes  away,  unless  upheld  by  restraint  on  thought. 
History  tells  us,  and  the  lesson  is  invaluable,  that  tlie 
physical  force  which  has  put  down  free  inquiry  has  been 
the  main  bulwark  of  the  superstitions  and  illusions  of 
past  ages. 

In  the  next  place,  if  we  look  at  the  chief  direction  of 
the  universal  activity  of  the  age,  we  shall  find  that  it  is 
a  conservative  one,  so  as  to  render  social  convulsion 
next  to  impossible.  On  what,  after  all,  are  the  main 
energies  of  this  restlessness  spent  ?  On  property,  on 
wealth.  High  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  are  running  the 
race  of  accumulation.  Property  is  the  prize  for  which 
all  strain  their  nerves  ;  and  the  vast  majority  compass  in 
some  measure  this  end.  And  is  such  a  society  in  dan- 
ger of  convulsion  ?  Is  tumult  the  way  to  wealth  ?  Is 
a  state  of  insecurity  coveted  by  men  who  own  some- 
thing and  hope  for  more  .''  Are  civil  laws,  which,  after 
all,  have  property  for  their  chief  concern,  very  likely  to 
be  trodden  under  foot  by  its  worshippers  ?  Of  all  the 
dreams  of  fear,  few  seem  to  me  more  baseless  than  tlie 
dread  of  anarchy  among  a  people  who  are  possessed 
almost  to  a  man  with  the  passion  for  gain.  I  am  espe- 
cially amused,  when,  among  such  a  people,  I  sometimes 
hear  of  danger  to  property  and  society  from  enthusias- 
tic, romantic  reformers  who  preach  levelling  doctrines, 
equality  of  wealth,  quaker  plainness  of  dress,  vegetable 


17  J  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

food,  and  community-systems  where  all  are  to  toil  and 
divide  earnings  alike.  What  !  Danger  from  romance 
and  enthusiasm  in  this  money-getting,  self-seeking,  self- 
indulging,  self-displaying  land  ?  I  confess  that  to  me  it 
is  a  comfort  to  see  some  outbreak  of  enthusiasm,  wheth- 
er transcendental,  philanthropic,  or  religious,  as  a  proof 
iliat  the  human  spii'it  is  not  wholly  ingulfed  in  matter 
and  business,  that  it  can  lift  up  a  little  the  mountains  of 
worldliness  and  sense  with  which  it  is  so  borne  down. 
It  will  be  time  enough  to  fear,  when  we  shall  see  fanat- 
icism of  any  kind  stopping,  ever  so  little,  the  wheels 
of  business  or  pleasure,  driving,  ever  so  little,  from 
man's  mind  the  idea  of  gain,  or  from  woman's  the  love 
of  display.  Are  any  of  you  dreading  an  innovating  en- 
thusiasm ?  You  need  only  to  step  into  the  streets  to  be 
assured  that  property  and  the  world  are  standing  their 
ground  against  the  spirit  of  reform  as  stoutly  as  the  most 
w^orldly  man  could  desire. 

Another  view  which  quiets  my  fear  as  to  social  order, 
from  the  universal  activity  of  the  times,  is  the  fact,  that 
this  activity  appears  so  much  in  the  form  of  steady  la- 
bor. It  is  one  distinction  of  modern  over  ancient  times, 
that  we  have  grown  more  patient  of  toil.  Om-  danger 
is  from  habits  of  drudgery.  The  citizens  of  Greece 
and  Rome  were  above  work.  We  seem  to  work  with 
something  of  the  instinct  of  the  ant  and  the  bee  ;  and 
tliis  is  no  mean  security  against  lawlessness  and  revolt. 

Another  circumstance  of  our  times  which  favors  a 
quiet  state  of  things  is,  the  love  of  comforts  which  the 
progress  of  arts  and  industry  has  spread  over  the  com- 
munity. In  feudal  ages  and  ancient  times  the  mass  of 
the  population  had  no  such  pleasant  homes,  no  such 
defences  again'^t   cold    and  storms,  no    such    decent    ap- 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  173 

parel,  no  such  abundant  and  savory  meals,  as  fall  to  the 
lot  of  our  population.  Now  it  must  be  confessed, 
though  not  very  flattering  to  human  nature,  that  men  are 
very  slow  to  part  with  these  comforts  even  in  defence 
of  a  good  cause,  much  less  to  throw  them  away  in  wild 
and  senseless  civil  broils. 

Another  element  of  security  in  the  present  is,  the 
strength  of  domestic  affection  Christianity  has  given 
new  sacredness  to  home,  new  tenderness  to  love,  new 
force  to  the  ties  of  husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child. 
Social  order  is  dear  to  us  all,  as  encircling  and  shelter- 
ing our  homes.  In  ancient  and  rude  times  the  family 
bond  was  comparatively  no  restraint.  We  should  all 
pause  before  we  put  in  peril  beings  whom  we  hold  most 
dear. 

Once  more  ;  Christianity  is  a  pledge  of  social  order 
which  none  of  us  sufficiently  prize.  Weak  as  its  influ- 
ence seems  to  be,  there  are  vast  numbers  into  whom  it 
has  infused  sentiments  of  justice,  of  kindness,  of  rever- 
ence for  God,  and  of  deep  concern  for  the  peace  and 
order  of  the  state.  Rapine  and  bloodshed  would  awaken 
now  a  horror  altogether  unknown  in  ages  in  which  this 
mild  and  divine  truth  had  not  exerted  its  power. 

With  all  these  influences  in  favor  of  social  influence, 
have  we  much  to  fear  from  the  free,  earnest,  universal 
movements  of  our  tim.es  ?  I  believe  that  the  very  ex- 
tension of  human  powers  is  to  bring  w^ith  it  new  checks 
against  their  abuse. 

The  prosperous  part  of  society  are,  of  course,  par- 
ticularly liable  to  the  fear  of  which  I  have  spoken. 
They  see  danger  especially  in  the  extension  of  power 
and  freedom  of  all  kinds  to  the  laboring  classes  of  so- 
ciety. They  look  with  a  jealous  eye  on  attempts  to  ele^ 
15* 


174  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

vate  these,  though  one  would  think  that  to  improve  a 
man  was  the  surest  way  to  disarm  his  violence.  They 
talk  of  agrarianism.  They  dread  a  system  of  universal 
pillage.  They  dread  a  conspiracy  of  the  needy  against 
the  rich.  Now  the  manual  laborer  has  burdens  enough 
to  bear  without  the  load  of  groundless  suspicion  or  re- 
proach. It  ought  to  be  understood  that  the  great  ene- 
mies to  society  are  not  found  in  its  poorer  ranks.  The 
mass  may,  indeed,  be  used  as  tools;  but  the  stirring 
and  guiding  powers  of  insurrection  are  found  above. 
Communities  fall  by  the  vices  of  the  prosperous  ranks. 
We  are  referred  to  Rome,  which  was  robbed  of  her 
liberties  and  reduced  to  the  most  degrading  vassalage  by 
the  lawlessness  of  the  Plebeians,  who  sold  themselves  to 
demagogues,  and  gave  the  republic  into  the  hands  of  a 
dictator.  But  what  made  the  Plebeians  an  idle,  disso- 
lute, rapacious  horde  ?  It  was  the  system  of  universal 
rapine  which,  under  the  name  of  conquest,  had  been 
carried  on  for  ages  by  Patricians,  by  all  the  powers  of 
the  state  ;  a  system  which  glutted  Rome  with  the  spoils 
of  the  pillaged  vrorld  ;  which  fed  her  population  without 
labor,  from  the  public  treasures,  and  corrupted  them  by 
public  shows.  It  was  this  which  helped  to  make  the 
metropolis  of  the  earth  a  sink  of  crime  and  pollution 
such  as  the  world  had  never  known.  It  was  time  that 
the  grand  robber-state  should  be  cast  down  from  her 
guilty  eminence.  Her  brutish  populace,  v/hich  followed 
Cassar's  car  with  shouts,  was  not  worse  than  the  venal, 
crouching  senate  which  registered  his  decrees.  Let  not 
the  poor  bear  the  burden  of  the  rich.  At  this  moment 
we  are  groaning  over  the  depressed  and  dishonored  state 
of  our  country  ;  and  who,  let  me  ask,  have  shaken  its 
credit,  and  made  so  many  of  its  institutions  bankrupt.^ 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  175 

The  poor,  or  the  rich  ?  Whence  is  it  that  the  incomes 
of  the  widow,  the  orphan,  the  aged  have  been  narrowed, 
and  muhitudes  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  brought  to  the 
brink  of  want  ?  Is  it  from  an  outbreak  of  popular  fury  ? 
Is  it  from  gangs  of  thieves  sprung  from  the  mob  ?  We 
know  the  truth,  and  it  shows  us  where  the  great  danger 
to  property  lies. 

Comniunities  fall  by  the  vices  of  the  great,  not  the 
small.  /  The  French  Revolution  is  perpetually  sounded 
in  our  ears  as  a  warning  against  the  lawlessness  of  the 
people.  But  whence  came  this  Revolution  ?  Who  weje 
the  regicides  ?  Who  beheaded  Louis  the  Sixteenth  ? 
You  tell  me  the  Jacobins  ;  but  history  tells  a  different  tale. 
I  will  show  you  the  beheaders  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth. 
They  were  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  and  the  Regent  who  fol- 
lowed him,  and  Louis  the  Fifteenth.  These  brought  their 
descendant  to  the  guillotine.  The  priesthood  who  revoked 
the  edict  of  Nantz,  and  drove  from  France  the  skill  and 
industry  and  virtue  and  piety  which  were  the  sinews  of  her 
strength  ;  the  statesmen  who  intoxicated  Louis  the  Four- 
teenth with  the  scheme  of  universal  empire  ;  the  profli- 
gate, prodigal,  shameless  Orleans  ;  and  the  still  more 
brutalized  Louis  the  Fifteenth,  with  his  court  of  panders 
and  prostitutes  ;  these  made  the  nation  bankrupt,  broke 
asunder  the  bond  of  loyalty,  and  overwhelmed  the 
throne  and  altar  In  ruins.  We  hear  of  the  horrors 
of  the  Revolution  ;  but  in  this,  as  in  other  things,  we 
recollect  the  effect  without  thinking  of  the  guiltier 
cause.  The  Revolution  was  indeed  a  scene  of  horror  ; 
but  when  I  look  back  on  the  reigns  which  preceded 
it,  and  which  made  Paris  almost  one  great  stew  and 
gaming-house,  and  when  I  see  altar  and  throne  dese- 
crated by   a  licentiousness  unsurpassed  in   any  former 


176  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

age,  I  look  on  scenes  as  shocking  to  the  calm  and  search- 
ing eye  of  reason  and  virtue  as  the  tenth  of  August  and 
the  massacres  of  September.  Bloodshed  is  indeed  a 
terrible  spectacle  ;  but  there  are  other  things  almost  as 
fearful  as  blood.  There  are  crimes  that  do  not  make 
us  start  and  turn  pale  like  the  guillotine,  but  are  deadlier 
in  their  workings.  God  forbid,  that  I  should  say  a  word 
to  weaken  the  thrill  of  horror  with  which  we  contem- 
plate the  outrages  of  the  French  Revolution  !  But 
when  I  hear  that  Revolution  quoted  to  frighten  us  from 
reform,  to  show  us  the  danger  of  lifting  up  the  depressed 
and  ignorant  mass,  I  must  ask  whence  it  came  ;  and  the 
answer  is,  that  it  came  from  the  intolerable  w^eight  of 
misgovernment  and  tyranny,  from  the  utter  want  of  cul- 
ture among  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  from  a  corrup- 
tion of  the  great  too  deep  to  be  purged  away  except  by 
destruction.  I  am  also  compelled  to  remember  that  the 
people,  in  this  their  singular  madness,  WTOught  far  less 
woe  than  kings  and  priests  have  wrought,  as  a  familiar 
thing,  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  All  the  murders  of  the 
French  Revolution  did  not  amount,  I  think,  by  one  fifth, 
to  those  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's.  The 
priesthood  and  the  throne,  in  one  short  night  and  day, 
shed  more  blood,  and  that  the  best  blood  of  France, 
than  was  spilled  by  Jacobinism  and  all  other  forms  of 
violence  during  the  whole  Revolution.  Even  the  atheism 
and  infidelity  of  France  were  due  chiefly  to  a  hcentious 
priesthood  and  a  licentious  court.  It  was  religion,  so 
called,  that  dug  her  own  grave.  In  offering  this  plea 
for  the  multitude  I  have  no  desire  to  transfer  to  the  mul- 
titude uncontrolled  pohtical  power.  I  look  at  power  in 
all  hands  with  jealousy.  I -wish  neither  rich  nor  poor  to 
be  my  masters.     What  I  wish  is,  the  improvement,  the 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  177 

elevation  of  all  classes,  and  especially  of  the  most 
numerous  class,  because  the  most  numerous,  because  the 
many  are  mankind,  and  because  no  social  progress  can 
be  hoped  but  from  influences  which  penetrate  and  raise 
the  mass  of  men.  Tlie  mass  must  not  be  confined  and 
kept  down  through  a  vague  dread  of  revolutions.  A 
social  order  requiring  such  a  sacrifice  would  be  too 
deaily  bought.  No  order  should  satisfy  us  but  that 
which  is  in  harmony  with  universal  improvement  and 
freedom. 

In  the  general  tone  of  this  Discourse  it  may  be  thought 
that  1  have  proposed  to  vindicate  the  present  age.    T  have 
no  such  thought.    I  would  improve,  not  laud  it.    I  feel  its 
imperfections  and  corruptions  as  deeply  as  any,  though  I 
may  be  most  shocked  by  features  that  give  others  little 
pain.     The  saddest  aspect  of  the  age,  to  me,  is  that  which 
undoubtedly  contributes  to  social  order.      It  is  the  ab- 
sorption of  the   multitude   of  men  in   outward,   material 
interests  ;   it  is  the  selfish  prudence  which  is  never  tired 
of   the  labor   of   accumulation,   and    which   keeps    men 
steady,    regular,    respectable   drudges   from    morning  to 
night.      The  cases  of  a  few  murders,  great  crimes,  lead 
multitudes  to  exclaim.  How  wicked  this  age  !     But  the 
worst  sign  is  the  chaining  down  of  almost  all  the  minds 
of  a  community  to  low,  perishable  interests.      It  is  a  sad 
thought,  that  the   infinite  energies   of  the  soul  have  no 
hit^her  end  than  to  cover  the  back,  and  fill  the  belly,  and 
keep  caste  in  society.      A  few  nerves,  hardly  visible,  on 
the  surface  of  the   tongue,   create   most  of  the   endless 
stir  around  us.     Undoubtedly,  eating  and  drinking,  dress- 
ing,  house-building,  and  caste-keeping,  are   matters  not 
to  be  despised  ;  most  of  them  are  essential.      But  surely 
life  has  a  higher  use  than  to  adorn  this  body  which  is  so 


178  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

soon  to  be  wrapped  in  grave-clothes,  than  to  keep  warm 
and  flowing  the  blood  which  is  so  soon  to  be  cold  and 
stagnant  In  the  tomb.  I  rejoice  in  the  boundless  activi- 
ty of  the  age,  and  I  expect  much  of  it  to  be  given  to 
our  outward  wants.  But  over  all  this  activity  there 
should  preside  the  great  idea  of  that  which  is  alone 
ourselves  ;  of  our  inward,  spiritual  nature  ;  of  the  think- 
ing, immortal  soul  ;  of  our  supreme  good,  our  chief  end, 
which  is,  to  bring  out,  cultivate,  and  perfect  our  highest 
powers,  to  become  wise,  holy,  disinterested,  noble  be- 
ings, to  unite  ourselves  to  God  by  love  and  adoration, 
and  to  revere  his  image  in  his  children.  The  vast  ac- 
tivity of  this  age,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  is  too  much 
confined  to  the  sensual  and  material,  to  gain  and  pleas- 
ure and  show.  Could  this  activity  be  swayed  and  puri- 
fied by  a  noble  aim,  not  a  single  comfort  of  life  would 
be  retrenched,  whilst  its  beauty  and  grace  and  interest 
would  be  unspeakably  increased. 

There  is  another  dark  feature  of  this  age.  It  is  the 
spirit  of  collision,  contention,  discord,  which  breaks 
forth  in  religion,  in  politics,  in  business,  in  private  af- 
fairs ;  a  result  and  necessary  issue  of  the  selfishness 
which  prompts  the  endless  activity  of  life.  The  mighty 
forces  which  are  this  moment  acting  in  society  are  not 
and  cannot  be  in  harmony,  for  they  are  not  governed  by 
Love.  They  jar  ;  they  are  discordant.  Life  now  has 
little  music  in  it.  It  is  not  only  on  the  field  of  battle  that 
men  fight.  They  fight  on  the  exchange.  Business  is 
war,  a  conflict  of  skill,  management,  and  too  often 
fraud  ;  to  snatch  the  prey  from  our  neighbour  is  the  end 
of  all  this  stir.  Religion  is  w^ar  ;  Christians,  forsaking 
their  one  Lord,  gather  under  various  standards  to  gain 
victory  for  their  sects.     Politics   are  war^  breaking  the 


THE  PRESENT  AGE.  179 

whole  people  into  fierce  and  unscrupulous  parties,  which 
forget  their  country  in  coniSicts  for  office  and  power. 
The  age  needs  nothing  more  than  peace-makers,  men 
of  serene,  commanding  virtue,  to  preach  in  hfe  and 
word  the  gospel  of  human  brotherhood,  to  allay  the  fires 
of  jealousy  and  hate. 

T  have  named  discouraging  aspects  of  our  time  to 
show  that  I  am  not  blind  to  the  world  I  live  in.  But  T 
still  hope  for  the  human  race.  Indeed,  I  could  not  live 
without  hope.  Were  I  to  look  on  the  world  as  many 
do,  were  I  to  see  in  it  a  maze  without  a  plan,  a  whirl 
of  changes  without  aim,  a  stage  for  good  and  evil  to 
fight  without  an  issue,  an  endless  motion  without  pro- 
gress, a  world  where  sin  and  idolatry  are  to  triumph  for 
ever,  and  the  oppressor's  rod  never  to  be  broken,  I 
should  turn  from  it  with  sickness  of  heart,  and  care  not 
how  soon  the  sentence  of  its  destruction  were  fulfilled. 
History  and  philosophy  plainly  show  to  me  in  human 
nature  the  foundation  and  promise  of  a  better  era,  and 
Christianity  concurs  with  these.  The  thought  of  a 
higher  condition  of  the  world  was  the  secret  fire  which 
burned  in  the  soul  of  the  great  Founder  of  our  religion, 
and  in  his  first  followers.  That  he  was  to  act  on  all 
future  generations,  that  he  was  sowing  a  seed  which  was 
to  grow^  up  and  spread  its  branches  over  all  nations,  this 
great  thought  never  forsook  him  in  life  and  death.  That 
under  Christianity  a  civilization  has  grown  up  containing 
in  itself  nobler  elements  than  are  found  m  earlier  forms 
of  society,  who  can  deny  ?  Great  ideas  and  feelings, 
derived  from  this  source,  are  now  at  work.  Amidst 
the  prevalence  of  crime  and  selfishness,  there  has  sprung 
up  in  the  human  heart  a  sentiment  or  principle  unknown 
in   earlier  ages,  an   enlarged  and   trustful   philanthropy, 


180  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

which  recognizes  the  rights  of  every  human  being,  which 
is  stirred  by  the  terrible  oppressions  and  corruptions  of 
the  world,  and  which  does  not  shrink  from  conflict  with 
evil  in  its  worst  forms.  There  has  sprung  up,  too,  a 
failh,  of  which  antiquity  knew  nothing,  in  the  final  vic- 
tory of  truth  and  right,  in  the  elevation  of  men  to  a 
clearer  intelligence,  to  more  fraternal  union,  and  to  a 
purer  worship.  This  failh  is  taking  its  place  among  the 
great  springs  of  human  action,  is  becoming  even  a  pas- 
sion in  more  fervent  spirits.  I  hail  it  as  a  prophecy 
which  is  to  fulfil  itself.  A  nature  capable  of  such  an 
aspiration  cannot  be  degraded  for  ever.  Ages  rolled 
away  before  it  was  learned  that  this  world  of  matter 
which  we  tread  on  is  in  constant  motion.  We  are  be- 
gmning  to  learn  that  the  intellectual,  moral,  social  world 
has  its  motion  too,  not  fixed  and  immutable  like  that  of 
matter,  but  one  which  the  free  will  of  men  is  to  carry 
on,  and  which,  instead  of  returning  into  itself  like  the 
earth's  orbit,  is  to  stretch  forward  for  ever.  Tliis  hope 
lightens  the  mystery  and  burden  of  life.  It  is  a  star 
which  shines  on  me  in  the  darkest  night  ;  and  I  should 
rejoice  to  reveal  it  to  the  eyes  of  my  fellow-creatures. 

I  have  thus  spoken  of  the  Present  Age.  In  these 
brief  words  what  a  world  of  thought  is  comprehended  ! 
what  infinite  movements  !  what  joys  and  sorrows  !  what 
hope  and  despair  !  what  faith  and  doubt !  what  silent 
grief  and  loud  lament  !  what  fierce  conflicts  and  subtl° 
schemes  of  policy  !  what  private  and  public  revolutions 
In  the  period  through  which  many  of  us  have  passed 
what  thrones  have  been  shaken  !  what  hearts  have  bled! 
what  millions  have  been  butchered  by  their  fellow- 
creatures  !  what  hopes  of  philanthropy  have  been  blight- 
ed !      And    at   the  same   time    what  magnificent    enter- 


TBE  PRESENT  AGE.  181 

prises  have  been  achieved  !  what  new  provinces  won  to 
science  and  art  !  what  rights  and  Hberties  secured  to 
nations  !  It  is  a  privilege  to  have  hved  in  an  age  so 
stirring,  so  pregnant,  so  eventful.  It  is  an  age  never  to 
be  forgotten.  Its  voice  of  warning  and  encouragement 
is  never  to  die.  Its  impression  on  history  is  indelible. 
Amidst  its  events,  the  American  Revolution,  the  first 
distinct,  solemn  assertion  of  the  rights  of  men,  and  the 
French  Revolution,  that  volcanic  force  which  shook  the 
earth  to  its  centre,  are  never  to  pass  from  men's  minds. 
Over  this  age  the  night  will,  indeed,  gather  more  and 
more  as  time  rolls  away  ;  but  in  that  night  two  forms 
will  appear,  Washington  and  Napoleon,  the  one  a  lurid 
meteor,  the  other  a  benign,  serene,  and  undecaying  star. 
Another  American  name  will  live  in  history,  your  Frank- 
lin ;  and  the  kite  which  brought  lightning  from  heaven 
will  be  seen  saihng  in  the  clouds  by  remote  posterity, 
when  the  city  where  he  dwelt  may  be  known  only  by  its 
ruins.  There  is,  however,  something  greater  in  the 
age  than  its  greatest  men  ;  it  is  the  appearance  of  a  new 
power  in  the  world,  the  appearance  of  the  multitude  of 
men  on  that  stage  where  as  yet  the  few  have  acted  their 
parts  alone.  This  influence  is  to  endure  to  the  end  of 
time.  What  more  of  the  present  is  to  survive  ?  Per- 
haps much,  of  which  we  now  take  no  note.  The  glory 
of  an  age  is  often  hidden  from  itself.  Perhaps  some 
word  has  been  spoken  in  our  day  which  we  have  not 
deigned  to  hear,  but  which  is  to  grow  clearer  and  louder 
through  all  ages.  Perhaps  some  silent  thinker  among 
us  is  at  work  in  his  closet  whose  name  is  to  fill  the 
earth.  Perhaps  there  sleeps  in  his  cradle  some  reform- 
er who  is  to  move  the  church  and  the  world,  who  is  to 
open  a  new  era  in  history,  who  is  to  fire  the  human  soul 

VOL.    VI.  16 


182  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

with  new  hope  and  new  daring.  What  else  is  to  sur- 
vive the  age  ?  That  which  the  age  has  little  thought 
of,  but  which  is  living  in  us  all  ;  I  mean  the  Soul,  the 
Immortal  Spirit.  Of  this  all  ages  are  the  unfoldings, 
and  it  is  greater  than  all.  We  must  not  feel,  in  the  con- 
templation of  the  vast  movements  of  our  own  and  for- 
mer times,  as  if  we  ourselves  were  nothing.  I  repeat  it, 
we  are  greater  than  all.  We  are  to  survive  our  age,  to 
comprehend  it,  and  to  pronounce  its  sentence.  As  yet, 
however,  we  are  encompassed  with  darkness.  The 
issues  of  our  time  how  obscure  !  The  future  into  which 
it  opens  who  of  us  can  foresee  .''  To  the  Father  of  all 
Ages  I  commit  this  future  with  humble,  yet  courageous 
and  unfaltering  hope. 


THE  CHURCH. 


A  DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED  IN  THE 

FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL  UNITARIAN  CHURCH  OF  PfflLADELTUlA, 
Sunday,  May  30,  1S41. 


DISCOURSE  ON  THE  CHURCH, 


Matthew  vii.  21-21 :  '*  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord, 
Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  he  that  doeth 
the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  Many  will  say  to 
me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy 
name?  and  in  thy  name  have  cast  out  devils?  and  in  thy  name 
done  many  wonderful  works?  And  then  will  I  profess  unto 
them,  I  never  knew  you  ;  depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity 

Therefore,  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth 
them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which  built  his  house 
upon  a  rock  ;  and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and 
the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house,  and  it  fell  not ;  for  it 
was  founded  upon  a  rock. 

And  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them 
not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  which  built  his  house 
upon  the  sand  ;  and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and 
the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house,  and  it  fell ;  and  great 
was  the  fall  of  it." 

These  words,  which  form  the  conclusion  of  Christ's 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  teach  a  great  truth,  namely, 
that  there  is  but  one  thing  essential  in  religion,  and  this 
is,  the  doing  of  God's  will,  the  doing  of  those  sayings 
or  precepts  of  Christ  which  constitute  the  substance  of 
that  memorable  discourse.  We  learn  that  it  will  avail 
us  nothing  to  call  Christ,  Lord,  Lord,  to  profess  our- 
selves his  disciples,  to  hear  his  words,  to  teach  in  his 
name,  to  take  our  place  in  his  church,  or  even  to  do 
16* 


186  THE  CHURCH. 

tvonderful  works  or  miracles  in  attestation  of  his  truth,  if 
we  neglect  to  cherish  the  spirit  and  virtues  of  his  re- 
ligion. God  heeds  not  what  we  say,  hut  what  we  are, 
and  what  we  do.  The  subjection  of  our  wills  to  the 
Divine,  the  mortification  of  sensual  and  selfish  propen- 
sities, the  cultivation  of  supreme  love  to  God,  and  of 
universal  justice  and  charity  towards  our  neighbour, 
—  this,  this  is  the  very  essence  of  religion  ;  this  alone 
places  us  on  a  rock ;  this  is  the  end,  the  supreme  and 
ultimate  good,  and  is  to  be  prized  and  sought  above  all 
other  things. 

This  is  a  truth  as  simple  as  it  is  grand.  The  child 
can  understand  it  ;  and  yet  men,  in  all  ages,  have  con- 
trived to  overlook  it ;  have  contrived  to  find  substitutes 
for  purity  of  heart  and  life  ;  have  hoped  by  some  other 
means  to  commend  themselves  to  God,  to  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  Forms,  creeds,  churches,  the 
priesthood,  the  sacraments,  these  and  other  things  have 
been  exalted  into  supremacy.  The  grand  and  only 
qualification  for  heaven,  that  which  in  itself  is  heaven, 
the  virtue  and  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  has  been  ob- 
scured, depreciated  ;  whilst  assent  to  certain  mysteries, 
or  union  with  certain  churches,  has  been  thought  the 
narrow  way  that  leads  to  life.  I  have  not  time  in  a 
single  discourse  to  expose  all  the  delusions  which  have 
spread  on  this  subject.  I  shall  confine  myself  to  one, 
which  is  not  limited  to  the  past,  but  too  rife  in  our  own 
limes. 

There  has  always  existed,  and  still  exists,  a  dispo- 
sition to  attach  undue  importance  to  "  the  church " 
which  a  man  belongs  to.  To  be  a  member  of  "  the 
true  church  ''  has  been  insisted  on  as  essential  to  hu- 
man salvation.     Multitudes  have  sought  comfort,  and  not 


THE  CHURCH.  1  87 

seldom  found  their  ruin,  in  the  notion,  that  they  were  em- 
braced in  the  motherly  arms  of  "  the  true  church"  ;  for 
with  this  they  have  been  satisfied.  Professed  Chris- 
tians have  fought  about  "the  church"  as  if  it  were  a 
matter  of  hfe  and  death.  The  Roman  CathoHc  shuts 
the  gate  of  heaven  on  you  because  you  will  not  enter  his 
"church."  Among  the  Protestants  are  those  who  tell 
you  that  the  promises  of  Christianity  do  not  belong  to 
you,  be  your  character  what  it  may,  unless  you  receive 
the  Christian  ordinances  from  the  ministers  of  their 
"  church."  Salvation  is  made  to  flow  through  a  certain 
priesthood,  through  an  hereditary  order,  through  par- 
ticular rites  administered  by  consecrated  functionaries. 
Even  among  denominations  in  which  such  exclusive 
claims  are  not  set  up  you  will  still  meet  the  idea,  that  a 
man  is  safer  in  their  particular  "church"  than  else- 
where ;  so  that  something  distinct  from  Christian  purity 
of  heart  and  life  is  made  the  way  of  salvation. 

This  error  I  wish  to  expose.  I  wish  to  show  that 
Christ's  spirit,  Christ's  virtue,  or  "  the  doing  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,"  is  the  great  end  of  our  rehgion, 
the  only  essential  thing,  and  that  all  other  things  are  im- 
portant only  as  ministering  to  this.  I  know,  indeed,  that 
very  many  acknowledge  the  doctrine  now  expressed. 
But  too  often  their  conviction  is  not  deep  and  hving,  and 
it  is  impaired  by  superstitious  notions  of  some  mysterious 
saving  influence  in  "the  church,"  or  in  some  other 
foreign  agency.  To  meet  these  erroneous  tendencies,  I 
shall  not  undertake  to  prove  in  a  formal  way,  by  logical 
process,  the  supreme  importance,  blessedness,  and  glory 
of  righteousness,  of  sanctity,  of  love  towards  God  and 
man,  or  to  prove  that  nothing  else  is  indispensable.  This 
truth  shines  by  its  own  light.     It  runs  through  the  whole 


188  THE  CHURCH. 

New  Testament ;  and  is  a  gospel  written  in  the  soul  by 
a  divine  hand.  To  vindicate  it  against  the  claims  set  up 
for  "the  church,"  nothing  is  needed  but  to  offer  a  few 
plain  remarks  in  the  order  in  which  they  rise  up  of  them- 
selves to  my  mind. 

I  begin  with  the  remark,  that  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  Jesus  said  nothing  about  the  "  church  "  ;  nor  do 
we  find  him,  or  his  disciples,  laying  down  anywhere  a 
definite  plan  for  its  organization,  or  a  ritual  for  its  wor- 
ship. Nor  ought  this  to  surprise  us.  It  was  the  very 
thing  to  be  expected  in  such  a  religion  as  Christianity. 
Judaism  was  intended  to  educate  a  particular  nation, 
half  civilized  and  surrounded  with  the  grossest  idolatry, 
and  accordingly  it  hedged  them  in  by  multiplied  and  rigid 
forms.  But  Christianity  proposes,  as  its  grand  aim,  to 
spread  the  inward,  spiritual  worship  of  God  through  all 
nations,  in  all  stages  of  society,  under  all  varieties  of 
climate,  government,  and  condition  ;  and  such  a  religion 
cannot  be  expected  to  confine  itself  to  any  particular 
outward  shape.  Especially  when  we  consider  that  it  is 
destined  to  endure  through  all  ages,  to  act  on  all,  to 
blend  itself  with  new  forms  of  society  and  with  the  high- 
est improvements  of  the  race,  it  cannot  be  expected  to 
ordain  an  immutable  mode  of  administration,  but  must 
leave  its  modes  of  worship  and  communion  to  con- 
form themselves  silently  and  gradually  to  the  wants  and 
progress  of  humanity.  The  rites  and  arrangements  which 
suit  one  period  lose  their  significance  or  efficiency  in 
another.  The  forms  which  minister  to  the  mind  now 
may  fetter  it  hereafter,  and  must  give  place  to  its  free 
unfolding.  A  system  wanting  this  freedom  and  flexible- 
ness  would  carry  strong  proof  in  itself  of  not  having  been 
intended  for  universality.     It  is  one  proof  of  Christ's 


THE  CHURCH.  189 

having  come  to  ''  inherit  all  nations,"  that  he  did  not  in- 
stitute for  all  nations  and  all  times  a  precise  machinery 
of  forms  and  outward  rules,  that  he  entered  into  no  mi- 
nute legislation  as  to  the  worship  and  government  of  his 
church,  but  left  these  outward  concerns  to  be  swayed  by 
the  spirit  and  progress  of  successive  ages.  Of  conse- 
quence, no  particular  order  of  the  church  can  be  essen- 
tial to  salvation.  No  church  can  pretend  that  its  consti- 
tution is  defined  and  ordained  in  the  Scriptures  so  plainly 
and  undeniably  that  whoever  forsakes  it  gives  palpable 
proof  of  a  spirit  of  disobedience  to  God.  All  churches 
are  embraced  by  their  members  with  equal  religious 
reverence,  and  this  assures  us  that  in  all  God's  favor 
may  be  equally  obtained. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that,  from  the  necessity  of 
the  case,  the  church  assumed  at  first  a  form  w4iich  it 
could  not  long  retain.  It  was  governed  by  the  apostles 
who  had  founded  it,  men  who  had  known  Christ  per- 
sonally, and  received  his  truth  from  his  lips,  and  witnessed 
his  resurrection,  and  were  enriched  above  all  men  by  the 
miraculous  illuminations  and  aids  of  his  Spirit.  These 
presided  over  the  church  with  an  authority  peculiar  to 
themselves,  and  to  which  none  after  them  could  with  any 
reason  pretend.  They  understood  ''the  mind  of  Christ  " 
as  none  could  do  but  those  who  had  enjoyed  so  long  and 
close  an  intimacy  with  him  ;  and  not  only  were  they 
sent  forth  with  miraculous  powers,  but,  by  imposition  of 
their  hands,  similar  gifts  of  the  Spirit  were  conferred  on 
others.  This  presence  of  inspired  apostles  and  super- 
natural powers  gave  to  the  primitive  church  obvious  and 
important  distinctions,  separating  it  widely  from  the  form 
which  it  was  afterwards  to  assume.  Of  this  we  have  a 
remarkable  proof  in  a  passage  of  Paul,  in  which  he  sets 


190  THE  CHURCH. 

before  us  the  offices  or  functions  exercised  in  the  origi- 
nal church.  ''God  hath  set  in  the  church  apostles^ 
prophets,  teachers,  miracles,  gifts  of  healings,  helps, 
governments,  diversities  of  tongues."  *  Now  of  all  these 
endowments  or  offices,  one  only,  that  of  teacher,  re- 
mains in  our  day.  The  apostles,  the  founders  and  he- 
roes of  the  primitive  church,  with  their  peculiar  powers, 
have  vanished,  leaving  as  their  representatives  their  writ- 
ings, to  be  studied  alike  by  all.  Teachers  remain,  not 
because  they  existed  in  the  first  age,  but  because  their 
office,  from  its  nature,  and  from  the  condition  of  human 
nature,  is  needed  still.  The  office,  however,  has  under- 
gone an  important  change.  At  first  the  Christian  teach- 
er enjoyed  immediate  communication  with  the  apostles, 
and  received  miraculous  aids,  and  thus  enjoyed  means 
of  knowledge  possessed  by  none  of  his  successors. 
The  Christian  minister  now  can  only  approach  the  apos- 
tles as  other  men  do,  that  is,  through  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  which  they  have  left  us  ;  and  he  has  no  other 
aid  from  above  in  interpreting  them  than  every  true 
Christian  enjoys.  The  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
that  greatest  of  promises,  is  made  without  distinction  to 
every  man,  of  every  office  or  rank,  who  perseveringly 
implores  the  Divine  help  ;  and  this  establishes  an  esDon- 
tial  equality  among  all.  Whether  teachers  are  to  con- 
tinue in  the  brighter  ages  which  prophecy  announces  is 
rendered  doubtful  by  a  very  striking  prediction  of  the 
times  of  the  Messiah.  "  After  those  days,"  saith  the 
Lord,  "  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and 
write  it  in  their  hearts,  and  will  be  their  God,  and  they 
shall  be  my  people.  And  they  shall  teach  no  more 
every  man   his  neighbour,  and   every  man   his   brother, 

•  1  Cor.  xii.  28. 


THE  CHURCH.  191 

saying,  '  Know  the  Lord  ;  '  for  they  shall  all  know  me, 
from  the  least  of  iheni  unto  the  greatest  of  them."  *  Is 
it  possible  that  any  man,  with  a  clear  comprehension  of 
the  peculiarity  of  the  primitive  church,  can  look  back  to 
this  as  an  immutable  form  and  rule,  can  regard  any  church 
form  as  essential  to  salvation,  can  ascribe  to  outward  or- 
dinances, so  necessarily  fluctuating,  an  importance  to  be 
compared  with  that  which  belongs  to  the  immutable, 
everlasting  distinctions  of  holiness  and  virtue  ? 

The  church  as  at  first  constituted  presents  interesting 
and  beautiful  aspects.  It  was  not  a  forced  and  arbi- 
trary, but  free,  spontaneous  union.  It  grew  out  of  the 
principles  and  feelings  of  human  nature.  Our  nature  is 
social.  We  cannot  live  alone.  We  cannot  shut  up  any 
great  feeling  in  our  hearts.  We  seek  for  others  to  par- 
take it  with  us.  The  full  soul  finds  at  once  relief  and 
strength  in  sympathy.  This  is  especially  true  in  relig- 
ion, the  most  social  of  all  our  sentiments,  the  only  uni- 
versal bond  on  earth.  In  this  law  of  our  nature  the 
Christian  church  had  its  origin.  Christ  did  not  establish 
it  in  a  formal  way.  If  you  consult  the  New  Testament, 
you  do  not  find  Jesus  or  his  apostles  setting  about  the 
task  of  forming  an  artificial  organization  of  the  first  dis- 
ciples. Read  in  the  book  of  Acts  the  simple,  touch- 
ing narratives  of  the  union  of  the  first  converts.  They 
*'  were  of  one  heart  and  of  one  soul."  They  could  not 
be  kept  asunder.  The  new  truth  melted  them  into  one 
mass,  knit  them  into  one  body.  In  their  mutual  love 
they  could  not  withhold  from  one  another  their  posses- 
sions, but  had  all  things  in  common.  Blessed  unity  !  a 
type  of  that  oneness  and  harmony  which  a  purer  Chris- 
tianity is  to  spread  through  all  nations.     Among  those 

*  Jeremiah,  xxxi.  33,  34. 


192  THE  CHURCH. 

early  converts  the  most  gifted  and  enlightened  were 
chosen  to  be  teachers  in  public  assemblies.  To  these 
assemblies  the  brotherhood  repaired  with  eagerness,  to 
hear  expositions  of  the  new  faith,  to  strengthen  one 
another's  loyalty  to  Christ,  and  to  be  open  witnesses  of 
him  in  the  world.  In  their  meetings  they  were  left  very 
much  to  follow  the  usages  of  the  synagogue,  in  which 
they  had  been  brought  up  ;  so  little  did  Christianity 
trouble  itself  about  forms.  How  simple,  how  natural 
this  association  !  It  is  no  mystery.  It  grew  out  of  the 
plainest  wants  of  the  human  heart.  The  religious  sen- 
timent, the  spirit  of  love  towards  God  and  man,  awak- 
ened afresh  by  Christ,  craved  for  a  new  union  through 
which  to  find  utterance  and  strength.  And  shall  this 
church  union,  the  growth  of  the  Christian  spirit,  and  so 
plainly  subordinate  to  it,  usurp  its  place,  or  in  any  way 
detract  from  its  sole  sulSiciency,  from  its  supreme,  un- 
rivalled glory  ? 

The  church,  according  to  its  true  idea  and  purpose, 
is  an  association  of  sincere,  genuine  followers  of  Christ; 
and  at  first  this  idea  was  in  a  good  degree  realized. 
The  primitive  disciples  were  drawn  to  Christ  by  con- 
viction. They  met  together  and  confessed  him,  not 
from  usage,  fashion,  or  education,  but  in  opposition  to 
all  these.  In  that  age,  profession  and  practice,  the  form 
and  the  spirit,  the  reality  and  the  outward  signs  of  re- 
ligion went  together.  But  with  the  growth  of  the  church 
its  hfe  declined  ;  its  great  idea  was  obscured  ;  the  name 
remained,  and  sometimes  Httle  more  than,  the  name.  It 
is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  the  very  spirit  to  which  Chris- 
tianity is  most  hostile,  the  passion  for  power,  dominion, 
pomp,  and  preeminence,  struck  its  deepest  roots  in  the 
church.      The  church  became  the  very  stronghold  of 


THE  CHURCH.  193 

the  lusts  and  vices  which  Christianity  most  abhors.  Ac- 
cordingly its  history  is  one  of  the  most  melancholy  rec-  | 
ords  of  past  times.  It  is  sad  enough  to  read  the  blood- 
stained annals  of  worldly  empires  ;  but  when  we  see  the 
spiritual  kingdom  of  Christ  a  prey  for  ages  to  usurping 
popes,  prelates,  or  sectarian  chiefs,  inflamed  with  big- 
otry and  theological  hate  and  the  lust  of  rule,  and  driven 
by  these  fires  of  hell  to  grasp  the  temporal  sword,  to 
persecute,  torture,  imprison,  butcher  their  brethren,  to 
mix  with  and  embitter  national  wars,  and  to  convulse  the 
whole  Christian  world,  we  experience  a  deeper  gloom, 
and  are  more  tempted  to  despair  of  our  race.  History 
has  not  a  darker  page  than  that  which  records  the  perse- 
cutions of  the  Albigenses,  or  the  horrors  of  the  Inqui- 
sition. And  when  we  come  to  later  times,  the  church 
wears  any  thing  rather  than  "  Holiness  "  inscribed  on 
her  front.  How  melancholy  to  a  Christian,  the  history 
lately  given  us  by  Ranke  of  the  reaction  of  Catholicism 
against  Protestantism  !  Throughout  we  see  the  eccle- 
siastical powers  resorting  to  force  as  the  grand  instru- 
ment of  conversion  ;  thus  proving  their  alliance,  not 
with  heaven,  but  with  earth  and  hell.  If  we  take  broad 
views  of  the  church  in  any  age  or  land,  how  seldom  do 
we  see  the  prevalence  of  true  sanctity  !  How  many  of 
its  ministers  preach  for  lucre  or  display,  preach  what 
they  do  not  believe,  or  deny  their  doctrines  in  their 
lives  !  How  many  congregations  are  there,  made  up  in 
a  great  degree  of  worldly  men  and  women,  who  repair 
to  the  house  of  God  from  usage,  or  for  propriety's  sake, 
or  from  a  vague  notion  of  being  saved  ;  not  from  thirst 
for  the  Divine  Spirit,  not  from  a  fulness  of  heart  which 
longs  to  pour  itself  forth  in  prayer  and  praise  !  Such 
is  the  church.     We  are  apt,  indeed,  to  make  it  an  ab- 

VOL.    VI.  17 


194  THE  CHURCH. 

straction,  or  to  separate  it  in  our  thoughts  from  the  in- 
dividuals who  compose  it ;  and  thus  it  becomes  to  us  a 
holy  thing,  and  we  ascribe  to  it  strange  powers.  Theo- 
logians speak  of  it  as  a  unity,  a  mighty  whole,  one  and 
the  same  in  all  ages  ;  and  in  this  way  the  imagination  is 
cheated  into  the  idea  of  its  marvellous  sanctity  and  gran- 
deur. But  we  must  separate  between  the  theory  or  the 
purpose  of  the  church  and  its  actual  state.  When  we 
come  down  to  facts,  we  see  it  to  be,  not  a  mysterious, 
immutable  unity,  but  a  collection  of  fluctuating,  divided, 
warring  individuals,  who  bring  into  it,  too  often,  hearts 
and  hands  any  thing  but  pure.  Painful  as  it  is,  we  must 
see  things  as  they  are  ;  and  so  doing,  we  cannot  but  be 
struck  with  the  infinite  absurdity  of  ascribing  to  such  a 
church  mysterious  powers,  of  supposing  that  it  can  con- 
fer holiness  on  its  members,  or  that  the  circumstance 
of  being  joined  to  it  is  of  the  least  moment  in  compar- 
ison with  purity  of  heart  and  life. 

Purity  of  heart  and  life,  Christ's  spirit  of  love  towards 
God  and  man  ;  this  is  all  in  all.  This  is  the  only  es- 
sential thing.  The  church  is  important  only  as  it  min- 
isters to  this  ;  and  every  church  which  so  ministers  is  a 
good  one,  no  matter  how,  when,  or  where  it  grew  up, 
no  matter  whether  it  worship  on  its  knees  or  on  its  feet, 
or  whether  its  ministers  are  ordained  by  pope,  bishop, 
presbyter,  or  people  ;  these  are  secondary  things,  and 
of  no  comparative  moment.  The  church  which  opens 
on  heaven  is  that,  and  that  only,  in  which  the  spirit  of 
heaven  dwells.  The  church  whose  worship  rises  to 
God's  ear  is  that,  and  that  only,  where  the  soul  ascends. 
No  matter  whether  it  be  gathered  in  cathedral  or  barn  ; 
whether  it  sit  in  silence,  or  send  up  a  hymn  ;  whether 
the  minister  speak  from   carefully  prepared   notes,   or 


THE  CHUECH.  195 

from  immediate,  fervent,  irrepressible  suggestion.  If 
God  be  loved,  and  Jesus  Christ  be  welcomed  to  the 
soul,  and  his  instructions  be  meekly  and  wisely  heard, 
and  the 'solemn  purpose  grow  up  to  do  all  duty  amidst 
all  conflict,  sacrifice,  and  temptation,  then  the  true  end 
of  the  church  is  answered.  "  This  is  no  other  than  the 
house  of  God,  the  gate  of  heaven." 

In  these  remarks  I  do  not  mean  that  all  churches  are 
of  equal  worth.  Some  undoubtedly  correspond  more 
than  others  to  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  Christianity,  to 
the  simple  usages  of  the  primitive  disciples,  and  to  the 
principles  of  human  nature.  All  have  their  supersti- 
tions and  corruptions,  but  some  are  more  pure  than  the 
rest ;  and  we  are  bound  to  seek  that  which  is  purest, 
which  corresponds  most  to  the  Divine  will.  As  far  as 
we  have  powder  to  select,  we  should  go  to  the  church 
where  we  shall  be  most  helped  to  become  devout,  disin- 
terested, and  morally  strong.  Our  salvation,  however, 
does  not  depend  on  our  finding  the  best  church  on  earth, 
for  this  may  be  distant  or  unknown.  Amidst  diversities 
of  administrations  there  is  the  same  spirit.  In  all  re- 
ligious societies  professing  Christ  as  their  Lord,  the 
plainest,  grandest  truths  of  religion  will  almost  certainly 
be  taught,  and  some  souls  may  be  found  touched  and 
enlightened  from  above.  This  is  a  plain,  undeniable 
fact.  In  all  sects,  various  as  they  are,  good  and  holy 
men  may  be  found  ;  nor  can  we  tell  in  which  the  holiest 
have  grown  up.  The  church,  then,  answers  its  end  in 
all  ;  for  its  only  end  is,  to  minister  to  human  virtue.  It 
is  delightful  to  read  in  the  records  of  all  denominations 
the  lives  of  eminent  Christians  who  have  given  up  every 
thing  for  their  religion,  who  have  been  faithful  unto 
death,  who  have  shed  around  them  the  sweet  light  and 


;196  THE  CHURCH. 

fragrance  of  Christian  hope  and  love.  We  cannot,  then, 
well  choose  amiss,  if  we  choose  the  church  which,  as  it 
seems  to  us,  best  represents  the  grand  ideas  of  Christ, 
and  speaks  most  powerfully  to  our  consciences  and 
hearts.  This  church,  however,  we  must  not  choose 
for  our  brother.  He  differs  from  us,  probably,  in  tem- 
perament, in  his  range  of  intellect,  or  in  the  impressions 
which  education  and  habit  have  given  him.  Perhaps  the 
worship  which  most  quickens  you  and  me  may  hardly 
keep  our  neighbour  awake.  He  must  be  approached 
through  the  heart  and  imagination  ;  we  through  the  rea- 
son. What  to  him  is  fervor  passes  with  us  for  noise. 
What  to  him  is  an  imposing  form  is  to  us  vain  show. 
Condemn  him  not.  If,  in  his  warmer  atmosphere,  he 
builds  up  a  stronger  faith  in  God  and  a  more  steadfast 
choice  of  perfect  goodness  than  ourselves,  his  church  is 
better  to  him  than  ours  to  us. 

One  great  error  in  regard  to  churches  contributes  to 
the  false  estimate  of  them  as  essential  to  salvation.  We 
imagine  that  the  church,  the  minister,  the  worship  can 
do  something  for  us  mechanically  ;  that  there  are  certain 
mysterious  influences  in  what  we  call  a  holy  place,  which 
may  act  on  us  without  our  own  agency.  Tt  is  not  so. 
The  church  and  the  minister  can  do  little  for  us  in  com- 
parison with  what  we  must  do  for  ourselves,  and  nothing 
for  us  without  ourselves.  They  become  to  us  blessings 
through  our  own  activity.  Every  man  must  be  his  own 
^  priest.  It  Is  his  own  action,  not  the  minister's,  It  is  the 
prayer  issuing  from  his  own  heart,  not  from  another's  lips, 
which  aids  him  In  the  church.  The  church  does  him 
good  only  as  by  Its  rites,  prayers,  hymns,  and  sermons 
it  wakes  up  his  spirit  to  think,  feel,  pray,  praise,  and  re- 
solve.   The  church  Is  a  help,  not  a  force.    It  acts  on  us 


TIIE  CHURCH.  197 

by  rational  and  moral  means,  and  not  by  mystical  opera- 
tions. Its  influence  resembles  precisely  that  which  is 
exerted  out  of  church.  Its  efficiency  depends  chiefly 
on  the  clearness,  simplicity,  sincerity,  love,  and  zeal 
with  which  the  minister  speaks  to  our  understandings, 
consciences,  and  hearts  ;  just  as  in  common  life  we  are 
benefited  by  the  clearness  and  energy  with  which  our 
friends  set  before  us  what  is  good  and  pure.  The  church 
is  adapted  to  our  free  moral  nature.  It  acts  on  us  as 
rational  and  responsible  beings,  and  serves  us  through 
our  own  efficiency.  From  these  views  we  learn  that  the 
glory  of  the  church  does  not  lie  in  any  particular  govern- 
ment or  form,  but  in  the  wisdom  with  which  it  com- 
bines such  influences  as  are  fitted  to  awaken  and  purify 
the  soul. 

Am  I  asked  to  state  more  particularly  what  these  in- 
fluences are  to  which  the  church  owes  its  efficacy  }  I 
reply,  that  they  are  such  as  may  be  found  in  all  church- 
es, in  all  denominations.  The  first  is,  the  character  of 
the  minister.  This  has  an  obvious,  immediate,  and 
powerful  bearing  on  the  great  spiritual  purpose  of  the 
church.  I  say,  his  character,  not  his  ordination.  Ordi- 
nation has  no  end  but  to  introduce  into  the  sacred  office 
men  qualified  for  its  duties,  and  to  give  an  impression  of 
its  importance.  It  is  by  his  personal  endowments,  by 
his  intellectual,  moral,  and  rehgious  worth,  by  his  faith- 
fulness and  zeal,  and  not  through  any  mysterious  cere- 
mony or  power,  that  the  minister  enlightens  and  edifies  the 
church.  What  matters  it  how  he  is  ordained  or  set  apart, 
if  he  give  himself  to  his  work  in  the  fear  of  God  }  What 
matters  it  who  has  laid  hands  on  him,  or  whether  he  stand 
up  in  surplice  or  drab  coat  ?  I  go  to  church  to  be  bene- 
fited, not  by  hands  or  coats,  but  by  the  action  of  an  en- 
17* 


198  THE  CHURCH. 

lightened  and  holy  teacher  on  my  mind  and  heart  ;  not  an 
overpowering,  irresistible  action,  but  such  as  becomes 
effectual  through  my  own  free  thought  and  will.  I  go  to 
be  convinced  of  what  is  true,  and  to  be  warmed  with 
love  of  what  is  good  ;  and  he  who  thus  helps  me  is  a  true 
minister,  no  matter  from  what  school,  consistory,  or 
ecclesiastical  body  he  comes.  He  carries  his  com- 
mission in  his  soul.  Do  not  say,  that  his  ministry  has 
no  ''validity,"  because  Rome,  or  Geneva,  or  Lambeth, 
or  Andover,  or  Princeton,  has  not  laid  hands  on  him. 
What  !  Has  he  not  opened  my  eyes  to  see,  and  roused 
my  conscience  to  reprove  ?  As  I  have  heard  him  has 
not  my  heart  burned  within  me,  and  have  I  not  silently 
given  myself  to  God  with  new  humility  and  love  ?  Have 
I  not  been  pierced  by  his  warnings,  and  softened  by  his 
looks  and  tones  of  love  ?  Has  he  not  taught  and  helped 
me  to  deny  myself,  to  conquer  the  world,  to  do  good  to 
a  foe  ?  Has  he  done  this  ;  and  yet  has  his  ministry  no 
"validity"?  What  other  validity  can  there  be  than 
this  ?  If  a  generous  friend  gives  me  w^ater  to  drink 
when  I  am  parched  with  thirst,  and  I  drink  and  am  re- 
freshed, will  it  do  to  tell  me,  that,  because  he  did  not 
buy  the  cup  at  a  certain  licensed  shop,  or  draw  the  water 
at  a  certain  antiquated  cistern,  therefore  his  act  of  kind- 
ness is  "  invalid,"  and  I  am  as  thirsty  and  weak  as  I  was 
before  .''  What  more  can  a  minister  with  mitre  or  tiara  do 
than  help  me,  by  wise  and  touching  manifestations  of 
God's  truth,  to  become  a  holier,  nobler  man  ?  If  my  soul 
be  made  alive,  no  matter  who  ministers  to  me  ;  and  if  not, 
the  ordinances  of  the  church,  whether  high  or  low,  ortho- 
dox or  heretical,  are  of  no  validity  so  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned. The  diseased  man  who  is  restored  to  health 
cares  little  whether  his  physician  wear  wig  or  cowl,  or 


THE  CHURCH.  199 

receive  his  diploma  from  Paris  or  London  ;  and  so  to 
the  regenerate  man  it  is  of  Httle  moment  where  or  by 
what  processes  he  became  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
According  to  these  views  a  minister  deriving  power 
from  his  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  worth  is  one 
of  the  chief  elements  of  a  true  and  quickening  church. 
Such  a  man  will  gather  a  true  church  round  him  ;  and 
we  here  learn  that  a  Christian  community  is  bound  to 
do  what  may  aid,  and  to  abstain  from  what  may  impair, 
the  virtue,  nobleness,  spiritual  energy  of  its  minister. 
It  should  especially  leave  him  free,  should  wish  him  to 
wear  no  restraints  but  those  of  a  sense  of  duty.  His 
office  is,  to  utter  God's  truth  according  to  his  apprehen- 
sion of  it,  and  he  should  be  encouraged  to  utter  it 
honestly,  simply.  He  must  follow  his  own  conscience, 
and  no  other.  How  can  he  rebuke  prevalent  error  with- 
out an  unawed  spirit  ?  Better  that  he  should  hold  his 
peace  than  not  speak  from  his  own  soul.  Better  that 
the  pulpit  be  prostrated  than  its  freedom  be  taken  away. 
The  doctrine  of  "  instructions  "  in  politics  is  of  very 
doubtful  expediency  ;  but  that  instructions  should  issue 
from  the  congregation  to  the  minister  we  all  with  one 
voice  pronounce  wrong.  The  religious  teacher  com- 
pelled to  stifle  his  convictions  grows  useless  to  his  peo- 
ple, is  shorn  of  his  strength,  loses  self-respect,  shrinks 
before  his  own  conscience,  and  owes  it  to  himself  to  re- 
frain from  teaching.  If  he  be  honest,  upright,  and  pure, 
worthy  of  trust,  worthy  of  being  a  minister,  he  has  a 
right  to  freedom  ;  and  when  he  uses  it  conscientiously, 
though  he  may  err  in  judgment,  and  may  give  pain  to 
judicious  hearers,  he  has  still  a  right  to  respect.  There 
are,  indeed,  few  religious  societies  which  would  know- 
ingly make  the  minister  a  slave.     Many  err  on  the  side 


200  THE  CHURCH. 

of  submission,  and  receive  his  doctrines  with  blind,  un- 
questioning faith.  Still,  the  members  of  a  congregation, 
conscious  of  holding  the  support  of  their  teacher  in  their 
hands,  are  apt  to  expect  a  cautious  tenderness  towards 
their  known  prejudices  or  judgments,  which,  though  not 
regarded  as  servility,  is  very  hostile  to  that  firm,  bold 
utterance  of  truth  on  which  the  success  of  his  ministry 
chiefly  depends. 

I  have  mentioned  the  first  condition  of  the  most  use- 
ful church  ;  it  is  the  high  cLaracter  of  its  minister.  The 
second  is  to  be  found  in  the  spiritual  character  of  its 
members.  This,  like  the  former,  is,  from  the  very  prin- 
ciples of  human  nature,  fitted  to  purify  and  save.  It 
was  the  intention  of  Christ  that  a  quickening  power 
should  be  exerted  in  a  church,  not  by  the  minister  alone, 
but  also  by  the  members  on  one  another.  x\ccordingly 
we  read  of  the  "  working  of  every  part,  every  joint," 
in  his  spiritual  body.  We  come  together  in  our  places 
of  worship  that  heart  may  act  on  heart ;  that  in  the 
midst  of  the  devout  a  more  fervent  flame  of  piety  may  be 
kindled  in  our  own  breasts  ;  that  w^e  may  hear  God's  word 
more  eagerly  by  knowing  that  it  is  drunk  in  by  thirsty 
spirits  around  us  ;  that  our  own  purpose  of  obedience 
may  be  confirmed  by  the  consciousness  that  a  holy  ener- 
gy of  will  is  unfolding  itself  in  our  neighbours.  To  this 
sympathy  the  church  is  dedicated  ;  and  in  this  its  highest 
influence  is  sometimes  found.  To  myself  the  most 
effectual  church  is  that  in  which  I  see  the  signs  of  Chris- 
tian affection  in  those  around  me,  in  which  warm  hearts 
are  beating  on  every  side,  in  which  a  deep  stillness 
speaks  of  the  absorbed  soul,  in  which  I  recognize 
fellow-beings  who  in  common  life  have  impressed  me 
with   their   piety.      One  look  from   a  beaming  counte- 


THE  CHURCH.  201 

nance,  one  tone  in  singing  from  a  deeply  moved  heart, 
perhaps  aids  me  more  than  the  sermon.  When  nothing 
is  said,  I  feel  it  good  to  be  among  the  devout  ;  and  I 
wonder  not  that  the  Quakers  in  some  of  their  still  meet- 
ings profess  to  hold  the  most  intimate  union,  not  only 
with  God,  but  with  each  other.  Tt  is  not  with  the  voice 
only  that  man  communicates  with  man.  Nothing  is  so 
eloquent  as  the  deep  silence  of  a  crowd.  A  sigh,  a  low 
breathing,  sometimes  pours  into  us  our  neighbour's  soul 
more  than  a  volume  of  words.  There  is  a  communica- 
tion more  subtile  than  freemasonry  between  those  who 
feel  alike.  How  contagious  is  holy  feeling  !  On  the 
other  hand,  how  freezing,  how  palsying,  is  the  gathering 
of  a  multitude  who  feel  nothing,  who  come  to  God's 
house  without  reverence,  without  love,  who  gaze  around 
on  each  other  as  if  they  were  assembled  at  a  show, 
whose  restlessness  keeps  up  a  slightly  disturbing  sound, 
whose  countenances  reveal  no  collectedness,  no  earnest- 
ness, but  a  frivolous  or  absent  mind  !  The  very  sanctity 
of  the  place  makes  this  indifference  more  chilling.  One 
of  the  coldest  spots  on  earth  is  a  church  without  devo- 
tion. What  is  it  to  me  that  a  costly  temple  is  set  apart, 
by  ever  so  many  rites,  for  God's  service,  that  priests 
who  trace  their  lineage  to  apostles  have  consecrated  it, 
if  I  find  it  thronged  by  the  worldly  and  undevout  ?  This 
is  no  church  to  me.  T  go  to  meet,  not  human  bodies, 
but  souls  ;  and  if  I  find  them  in  an  upper  room  like  that 
where  the  first  disciples  met,  or  in  a  shed,  or  in  a  street, 
there  I  find  a  church.  There  is  the  true  altar,  the  sweet 
incense,  the  accepted  priest.  These  all  I  find  in  sancti- 
fied souls. 

True  Christians  give  a  sanctifying  power,  a  glory,  to 
the  place  of  worship  where  they  come  together      In 


202  THE  CHURCH. 

them  Christ  is  present  and  manifested  in  a  far  higher 
sense  than  if  he  were  revealed  to  the  bodily  eye.  We 
are  apt,  indeed,  to  think  differendy.  Were  there  a  place 
of  worship  in  which  a  glory  like  that  which  clothed 
Jesus  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  were  to  shine 
forth,  how  should  we  throng  to  it  as  the  chosen  spot  on 
earth  !  how  should  we  honor  this  as  eminently  his  church  ! 
But  there  is  a  more  glorious  presence  of  Christ  than 
this.  It  is  Christ  formed  in  the  souls  of  his  disciples. 
Christ's  bodily  presence  does  not  make  a  church.  He 
was  thus  present  in  the  thronged  streets  of  Jerusalem, 
present  in  the  synagogues  and  temples  ;  but  these  were 
not  churches.  It  is  the  presence  of  his  spirit,  truth, 
likeness,  divine  love,  in  the  souls  of  men  which  attracts 
and  unites  them  into  one  living  body.  Suppose  that  we 
meet  together  in  a  place  consecrated  by  all  manner  of 
forms,  but  that  nothing  of  Christ's  spirit  dwells  in  us. 
With  all  its  forms,  it  is  a  synagogue  of  Satan,  not  a 
church  of  Jesus.  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  men,  I  repeat 
it,  is  the  only  church  bond.  The  Catholics,  to  give 
them  a  feeling  of  the  present  vSaviour,  adorn  their  tem- 
ples with  paintings  representing  him  in  the  most  affect- 
ing scenes  of  his  life  and  death  ;  and  had  worship  never 
been  directed  to  these,  I  should  not  object  to  them. 
But  there  is  a  far  higher  likeness  to  Christ  than  the  artist 
ever  drew  or  chiselled.  It  exists  in  the  heart  of  his  true 
disciple.  The  true  disciple  surpasses  Raphael  and 
Michael  Angelo.  The  latter  have  given  us  Christ's 
countenance  from  fancy,  and,  at  best,  having  little  like- 
ness to  the  mild  beauty  and  majestic  form  which  moved 
through  Judea.  But  the  disciple  who  sincerely  con- 
forms himself  to  the  disinterestedness,  and  purity,  and 
filial  worship,  and  all-sacrificing  love  of  Christ  gives  us 


THE  CHURCH.  203 

no  fancied  representation,  but  the  true,  divine  lineaments 
of  his  soul,  the  very  spirit  which  beamed  in  his  face, 
which  spoke  in  his  voice,  which  attested  his  glory  as  the 
Son  of  God.  The  truest  church  is  that  which  has  in 
the  highest  degree  this  spiritual  presence  of  our  Lord, 
this  revelation  of  Jesus  in  his  followers.  This  is  the 
church  in  which  we  shall  find  the  greatest  aid  to  our  vir- 
tue which  outward  institution  can  afford  us. 

I  have  thus  spoken  of  the  two  chief  elements  of  a 
living  and  effectual  church  ;  a  pure,  noble-minded  minis- 
ter, and  faithful  followers  of  Christ.  In  the  preceding 
remarks  T  have  had  chiefly  in  view  particular  churches, 
organized  according  to  some  particular  forms  ;  and  I 
have  maintained  that  these  are  important  only  as  minis- 
tering to  Christian  holiness  or  virtue.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  grander  church,  to  which  I  now  ask  your  atten- 
tion ;  and  the  consideration  of  this  will  peculiarly  con- 
firm the  lesson  on  which  I  am  insisting,  namely,  that 
there  is  but  one  essential  thing,  true  holiness,  or  dis- 
interested love  to  God  and  man.  There  is  a  grander 
church  than  all  particular  ones,  however  extensive  ;  the  \ 
Church  Catholic  or  Universal,  spread  over  all  lands,  and 
one  with  the  church  in  heaven.  That  all  Christ's  fol- 
lowers form  one  body,  one  fold,  is  taught  in  various  pas- 
sages in  the  New  Testament.  You  remember  the  earn- 
estness of  his  last  prayer,  "  that  they  might  all  be  One, 
as  he  and  his  Father  are  one."  Into  this  church  all  who 
partake  the  spirit  of  Christ  are  admitted.  It  asks  not 
who  has  baptized  us  ;  whose  passport  we  carry  ;  what 
badge  we  wear.  If  "  baptized  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  its 
wide  gates  are  opened  to  us.  Within  this  church  are 
joined  those  whom  different  names  have  severed  or  still 


204-  THE  CHURCH. 

sever.  We  hear  nothing  of  Greek,  Roman,  English 
churches,  but  of  Christ's  church  only.  My  friends,  this 
is  not  an  imaginary  union.  The  Scriptures  in  speaking 
of  it  do  not  talk  rhetorically,  but  utter  the  soberest  truth. 
All  sincere  partakers  of  Christian  virtue  are  essentially 
one.  In  the  spirit  which  pervades  them  dwells  a  uniting 
power  found  in  no  other  tie.  Though  separated  by 
oceans,  they  have  sympathies  strong  and  indissoluble. 
Accordingly,  the  clear,  strong  utterance  of  one  gifted,  in 
spired  Christian  flies  through  the  earth.  It  touches  kin- 
dred chords  in  another  hemisphere.  The  word  of  such 
a  man  as  Fenelon,  for  instance,  finds  its  way  into  the 
souls  of  scattered  millions.  Are  not  he  and  they  of  one 
church  ?  I  thrill  with  joy  at  the  name  of  holy  men  who 
lived  ages  ago.  Ages  do  not  divide  us.  I  venerate 
them  more  for  their  antiquity.  Are  we  not  one  body  .'' 
Is  not  this  union  something  real  .''  It  is  not  men's  com- 
ing together  into  one  building  which  makes  a  church. 
Suppose  that  in  a  place  of  worship  I  sit  so  near  a  fel- 
low-creature as  to  touch  him  ;  but  that  there  is  no  com- 
mon feeling  between  us,  that  the  truth  which  moves  me 
he  inwardly  smiles  at  as  a  dream  of  fancy,  that  the  dis- 
interestedness which  I  honor  he  calls  weakness  or  wild 
enthusiasm.  How  far  apart  are  we,  though  visibly  so 
near  !  We  belong  to  different  worlds.  How  much 
nearer  am  I  to  some  pure,  generous  spirit  in  another 
continent  whose  word  has  penetrated  my  heart,  whose 
virtues  have  kindled  me  to  emulation,  whose  pure  thoughts 
are  passing  through  my  mind  wiiilst  I  sit  in  the  house  of 
prayer  !  With  which  of  these  two  have  I  church  union  ? 
Do  not  tell  me  that  I  surrender  myself  to  a  fiction 
of  imagination,  when  I  say,  that  distant  Christians,  that 
all  Christians  and  myself,  form  one  body,  one  church, 


THE  CHURCH.  OQS 

just  as  far  as  a  common  love  and  piety  possess  our 
hearts.  Nothing  is  more  real  than  this  spiritual  union. 
There  is  one  grand,  all-comprehending  church  ;  and  if  I 
am  a  Christian,  I  belong  to  it,  and  no  man  can  shut  me 
out  of  it.  You  may  exclude  me  from  your  Roman 
church,  your  Episcopal  church,  and  your  Calvinistic 
church,  on  account  of  supposed  defects  in  my  creed  or 
my  sect,  and  I  am  content  to  be  excluded.  But  I  will 
not  be  severed  from  the  great  body  of  Christ.  Who 
shall  sunder  me  from  such  men  as  Fenelon,  and  Pascal, 
and  Borromeo,  from  Archbishop  Leighton,  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor, and  John  Howard  ?  Who  can  rupture  the  spiritual 
bond  between  these  men  and  myself  ?  Do  I  not  hold 
them  dear  ?  Does  not  their  spirit,  flowing  out  through 
their  writings  and  lives,  penetrate  my  soul  ?  Are  they 
not  a  portion  of  my  being  ?  x4.m  I  not  a  different  man 
from  what  I  should  have  been,  had  not  -these  and  other 
like  spirits  acted  on  mine  ?  And  is  it  in  the  power  of 
synod,  or  conclave,  or  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  combina- 
tions on  earth,  to  part  me  from  them  ?  I  am  bound  to 
them  by  thought  and  affection  ;  and  can  these  be  sup- 
pressed by  the  bull  of  a  pope  or  the  excommunication 
of  a  council  ?  The  soul  breaks  scornfully  these  bar- 
riers, these  webs  of  spiders,  and  joins  itself  to  the  great 
and  good  ;  and  if  it  possess  their  spirit,  will  the  great  and 
good,  living  or  dead,  cast  it  off  because  it  has  not  en- 
rolled itself  in  this  or  another  sect  ?  A  pure  mind  is 
free  of  the  universe.  It  belongs  to  the  church,  the 
family  of  the  pure,  in  all  worlds.  Virtue  is  no  local 
thing.  It  is  not  honorable  because  born  in  this  com- 
munity or  that,  but  for  its  own  independent,  everlasting 
beauty.  This  is  the  bond  of  the  universal  church.  No 
man  can  be  excommunicated  from  it  but  by  himself,  by 

VOL.    VI.  18 


206  THE  CHURCH. 

the  death  of  goodness  in  his  own  breast.  All  sentences 
of  exclusion  are  vain,  if  he  do  not  dissolve  the  tie  of 
jr  jrity  which  binds  him  to  all  holy  souls. 

I  honor  the  Roman  Catholic  church  on  one  account ; 
it  clings  to  the  idea  of  a  Universal  Church,  though  it 
has  mutilated  and  degraded  it.  The  word  Catholic 
means  Universal.  Would  to  God  that  the  church  which 
has  usurped  the  name  had  understood  the  reality  !  Still, 
Romanism  has  done  something  to  give  to  its  members 
the  idea  of  their  connexion  with  that  vast  spiritual  com- 
munity, or  church,  which  has  existed  in  all  times  and 
spread  over  all  lands.  It  guards  the  memory  of  great 
and  holy  men  who  in  all  ages  have  toiled  and  suffered 
for  religion,  asserts  the  honors  of  the  heroes  of  the  faith, 
enshrines  them  in  heaven  as  beatified  saints,  converts 
their  legends  into  popular  literature,  appoints  days  for 
the  celebration  of  their  virtues,  and  reveals  them  almost 
as  living  to  the  eye  by  the  pictures  in  which  genius  has 
immortalized  their  deeds.  In  doing  this  Rome  has  fallen, 
indeed,  into  error.  She  has  fabricated  exploits  for  these 
spiritual  persons,  and  exalted  them  into  objects  of  wor- 
ship. But  she  has  also  done  good.  She  has  given  to 
her  members  the  feeling  of  intimate  relation  to  the  ho- 
liest and  noblest  men  in  all  preceding  ages.  An  inter- 
esting and  often  a  sanctifying  tie  connects  the  present  Ro- 
man Catholic  with  martyrs,  and  confessors,  and  a  host  of 
men  whose  eminent  piety  and  genius  and  learning  have 
won  for  them  an  immortality  of  fame.  It  is  no  mean  ser- 
vice thus  to  enlarge  men's  ideas  and  affections,  to  awaken 
their  veneration  for  departed  greatness,  to  teach  them 
their  connexion  with  the  grandest  spirits  of  all  times.  It 
was  this  feature  of  Catholicism  which  most  interested 
me  in  visiting  Catholic  countries.      The  services  at  the 


THE  CHURCH.  207 

altar  did  not  move,  but  rather  pained  me.  But  when  I 
cast  my  eyes  on  the  pictures  on  the  walls,  which  placed 
before  me  the  holy  men  of  departed  ages,  now  absorbed 
in  devotion  and  lost  in  rapture,  now  enduring  with  meek 
courage  and  celestial  hope  the  agonies  of  a  painful  death 
in  defence  of  the  truth,  I  was  touched,  and  I  hope  made 
better.  The  voice  of  the  officiating  priest  I  did  not 
hear ;  but  these  sainted  dead  spoke  to  my  heart,  and  I 
was  sometimes  led  to  feel  as  if  an  hour  on  Sunday  spent 
in  this  communion  were  as  useful  to  me  as  if  it  had  been 
spent  in  a  Protestant  church.  These  saints  never  rose 
to  my  thoughts  as  Roman  Catholics.  I  never  connect- 
ed them  with  any  particular  church.  They  were  to  me 
living,  venerable  witnesses  to  Christ,  to  the  power  of 
rehgion,  to  the  grandeur  of  the  human  soul.  I  saw  what 
men  might  suffer  for  the  truth,  how  they  could  rise  above 
themselves,  how  real  might  become  the  ideas  of  God 
and  a  higher  life.  This  inward  reverence  for  the  de- 
parted good  helped  me  to  feel  myself  a  member  of  the 
church  universal.  I  wanted  no  pope  or  priest  to  estab- 
lish my  unity  with  them.  My  own  heart  was  witness 
enough  to  a  spiritual  fellowship.  Is  it  not  to  be  desired 
that  all  our  churches  should  have  services  to  teach  us 
our  union  with  Christ's  whole  body  ?  Would  not  this  break 
our  sectarian  chains,  and  awaken  reverence  for  Christ's 
spirit,  for  true  goodness,  under  every  name  and  form  ?  It 
is  not  enough,  to  feel  that  we  are  members  of  this  or  that 
narrow  communion.  Christianity  is  universal  sympathy  \ 
and  love.  I  do  not  recommend  that  our  churches  should 
be  lined  with  pictures  of  saints.  This  usage  must  come 
in,  if  it  come  at  all,  not  by  recommendation,  but  by 
gradual  change  of  tastes  and  feelings.  But  why  may 
not  the  pulpit  be  used  occasionally  to  give  us  the  lives 


208  THE  CHURCH. 

and  virtues  of  eminent  disciples  in  former  ages  ?  It  is 
customary  to  deliver  sermons  on  the  history  of  Peter, 
John,  Paul,  and  of  Abraham,  and  Elijah,  and  other 
worthies  of  the  Old  Testament  ;  and  this  we  do  because 
their  names  are  written  in  the  Bible.  But  goodness 
owes  nothing  to  the  circumstance  of  its  being  recorded 
in  a  sacred  book,  nor  loses  its  claim  to  grateful,  rever- 
ent commemoration  because  not  blazoned  there.  Moral 
greatness  did  not  die  out  with  the  apostles.  Their  lives 
were  reported  for  this,  among  other  ends,  that  their  vir- 
tues might  be  propagated  to  future  times,  and  that  men 
might  spring  up  as  worthy  a  place  among  the  canonized 
as  themselves.  What  T  wish  is,  that  we  should  learn  to 
regard  ourselves  as  members  of  a  vast  spiritual  com- 
munity, as  joint  heirs  and  fellow-worshippers  with  the 
goodly  company  of  Christian  heroes  who  have  gone 
before  us,  instead  of  immuring  ourselves  in  particular 
churches.  Our  nature  delights  in  this  consciousness  of 
vast  connexion.  This  tendency  manifests  itself  in  the 
patriotic  sentiment,  and  in  the  passionate  clinging  of  men 
to  a  great  religious  denomination.  Its  true  and  noblest 
gratification  is  found  in  the  deep  feeling  of  a  vital,  ever- 
lasting connexion  with  the  universal  church,  with  the  in- 
numerable multitude  of  the  holy  on  earth  and  in  heaven. 
This  church  we  shall  never  make  a  substitute  for  virtue. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  My 
great  objection  to  this  communion  is,  that  it  has  fallen 
peculiarly  into  the  error  w^hich  T  am  laboring  to  expose 
in  this  Discourse,  that  it  has  attached  idolatrous  impor- 
tance to  the  institution  of  the  Church,  that  it  virtually 
exalts  this  above  Christ's  spirit,  above  inward  sanctity. 
Its  other  errors  are  of  inferior  importance.      It  does  not 


-     THE  CHURCH.  209 

offend  me,  that  the  Romanist  maintains  that  a  piece  of 
bread,  a  wafer,  over  which  a  priest  has  pronounced  some 
magical  words,  is  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Jesus  Christ. 
I  learn,  indeed,  in  this  error,  an  humbling  lesson  of  hu- 
man credulity,  of  the  weakness  of  human  reason  ;  but  I 
see  nothing  in  it  which  strikes  at  the  essential  principles 
of  religion.  When,  however,  the  Roman  Catholic  goes 
farther,  and  tells  me  that  God  looks  with  abhorrence  on 
all  who  will  not  see  in  the  consecrated  wafer  Christ's 
flesh  and  blood  ;  and  when  he  makes  the  reception  of 
this  from  the  hands  of  a  consecrated  priest  the  door  into 
Christ's  fold,  then  I  am  shocked  by  the  dishonor  he 
casts  on  God  and  virtue,  by  his  debasing  conceptions  of 
our  moral  nature  and  of  the  Divine,  and  by  his  cruel  dis- 
ruption of  the  ties  of  human  and  Christian  brotherhood. 
How  sad  and  strange  that  a  man  educated  under  Chris- 
tianity should  place  religion  in  a  church-connexion,  in 
church-rites,  should  shut  from  God's  family  the  wisest 
and  the  best  because  they  conscientiously  abstain  from 
certain  outward  ordinances  !  Is  not  holiness  of  heart 
and  life  dear  to  God  for  its  own  sake,  dear  to  him  with- 
out the  manipulations  of  a  priest,  without  the  agency  of  a 
consecrated  wafer  ?  The  grand  error  of  Roman  Cathol- 
icism is,  its  narrow  church-spirit,  its  blind  sectarianism, 
its  exclusion  of  virtuous,  pious  men  from  God's  favor 
because  they  cannot  eat,  drink,  or  pray  according  to 
certain  prescribed  rites.  Romanism  has  to  learn  that 
nothing  but  the  inward  life  is  great  and  good  in  the  sight 
of  the  Omniscient,  and  that  all  who' cherish  this  are  mem- 
bers of  Christ's  body.  Romanism  is  any  thing  but  what 
it  boasts  to  be,  the  Universal  Church.  I  am  too  much 
a  Catholic  to  enlist  under  its  banner. 

I  belong  to  the  Universal  Church  ;  nothing  shall  sep- 
18* 


SIO  THE  CHURCH.  , 

arate  me  from  it.  In  saying  this,  however,  I  am  no 
enemy  to  particular  churches.  In  the  present  age  of 
the  world  it  is  perhaps  best  that  those  who  agree  in 
theological  opinions  should  worship  together  ;  and  I  do 
not  object  to  the  union  of  several  such  churches  in  one 
denomination,  provided  that  all  sectarian  and  narrow 
feehng  be  conscientiously  and  scrupulously  resisted.  I 
look  on  the  various  churches  of  Christendom  with  no 
feelings  of  enmity.  I  have  expressed  my  abhorrence  of 
the  sectarian  spirit  of  Rome  ;  but  in  that,  as  in  all  other 
churches,  individuals  are  better  than  their  creed  ;  and, 
amidst  gross  error  and  the  inculcation  of  a  narrow  spirit, 
noble  virtues  spring  up,  and  eminent  Christians .  are 
formed.  It  is  one  sign  of  the  tendency  of  human  na- 
ture to  goodness,  that  it  grows  good  under  a  thousand 
bad  influences.  The  Romish  church  is  illustrated  by 
great  names.  Her  gloomy  convents  have  often  been 
brightened  by  fervent  love  to  God  and  man.  Her  St. 
Louis,  and  Fenelon,  and  Massillon,  and  Cheverus  ;  her 
missionaries  who  have  carried  Christianity  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth  ;  her  sisters  of  charity  who  have  carried 
relief  and  solace  to  the  most  hopeless  w^ant  and  pain  ; 
do  not  these  teach  us  that  in  the  Romish  church  the 
Spirit  of  God  has  found  a  home  ?  How  much,  too, 
have  other  churches  to  boast  !  In  the  English  church 
we  meet  the  names  of  Latimer,  Hooker,  Barrow,  Leigh- 
ton,  Berkeley,  and  Heber  ;  in  the  Dissenting  Calvinistic 
church,  Baxter,  Howe,  Watts,  Doddridge,  and  Robert 
Hall ;  among  the  Quakers,  George  Fox,  William  Penn, 
Robert  Barclay,  and  our  own  Anthony  Benezet,  and 
John  Woolman  ;  in  the  Anti-trinitarian  church,  John 
Milton,  John  Locke,  Samuel  Clarke,  Price,  and  Priest- 
ley.   To  repeat  these  names  does  the  heart  good.    Thev 


THE  CHURCH.  211 

breathe  a  fragrance  through  the  common  air.  They  lift 
up  the  whole  race  to  which  they  belonged.  With  the 
churches  of  which  they  were  pillars  or  chief  ornaments 
I  have  many  sympathies  ;  nor  do  T  condemn  the  union 
of  ourselves  to  these  or  any  other  churches  whose  doc- 
trines we  approve,  provided  that  we  do  it  without  sever- 
ing ourselves  in  the  least  from  the  universal  church.  On 
this  point  we  cannot  be  too  earnest.  We  must  shun  the 
spirit  of  sectarianism  as  from  hell.  We  must  shudder 
at  the  thought  of  shutting  up  God  in  any  denomina- 
tion. We  must  think  no  man  the  better  for  belonging 
to  our  communion  ;  no  man  the  worse  for  belonging  to 
another.  We  must  look  with  undiminished  joy  on  good- 
ness, though  it  shine  forth  from  the  most  adverse  sect. 
Christ's  spirit  must  be  equally  dear  and  honored,  no 
matter  where  manifested.  To  confine  God's  love  or 
his  good  Spirit  to  any  party,  sect,  or  name  is  to  sin 
against  the  fundamental  law  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  to 
break  that  Hving  bond  with  Christ's  universal  church 
which  is  one  of  our  chief  helps  to  perfection. 

I  have  now  given  what  seem  to  me  the  most  important 
views  in  relation  to  the  church  ;  and  in  doing  this  I  have 
not  quoted  much  from  Scripture,  because  quotations 
cannot  be  given  fully  on  this  or  on  any  controverted 
point  in  the  compass  of  a  discourse.  I  have  relied  on 
what  is  vastly  more  important,  on  the  general  strain  and 
tone  of  Scripture,  on  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion, 
on  the  sum  and  substance  of  Christ's  teachings,  which 
is  plainly  this,  that  inward  holiness,  or  goodness,  or  dis- 
interested love,  is  all  in  all.  I  also  want  time  to  con- 
sider at  large  the  arguments  or  modes  of  reasoning  by 
which  this  or  that  church  sets  itself  forth  as  the  only  true 


212  THE  CHURCH. 

church,  and  by  which  the  necessity  of  entering  it  is 
thought  to  be  proved.  I  cannot,  however,  abstain  from 
offering  a  few  remarks  on  these. 

The  principal  arguments  on  which  exclusive  churches 
rest  their  claims  are  drawn  from  Christian  history  and 
literature,  in  other  words,  from  the  records  of  the  primi- 
tive ages  of  our  faith,  and  from  the  writings  of  the  early 
Fathers.  These  arguments,  I  think,  may  be  disposed 
of  by  a  single  remark,  that  they  cannot  be  comprehended 
or  weighed  by  the  mass  of  Christians.  How  very,  very 
few  in  our  congregations  can  enter  into  the  critical  study 
of  ecclesiastical  history,  or  wade  through  the  folios  of 
the  Greek  and  Latin  Fathers  !  Now  if  it  were  neces- 
sary to  join  a  particular  church  in  order  to  receive  the 
blessings  of  Christianity,  is  it  to  be  conceived  that  the 
discovery  of  this  church  should  require  a  learning  plainly 
denied  to  the  mass  of  human  beings  ?  Would  not  this 
church  shine  out  with  the  brightness  of  the  sun  .'*  Would 
it  be  hidden  in  the  imperfect  records  of  distant  ages,  or 
in  the  voluminous  writings  of  a  body  of  ancient  authors, 
more  remarkable  for  rhetoric  than  for  soundness  of  judg- 
ment ?  The  learned  cannot  agree  about  these  authori- 
ties. How  can  the  great  multitudes  of  believers  inter- 
pret them  ?  Would  not  the  Scriptures  guide  us  by  sim- 
ple, sure  rules  to  the  only  true  church,  if  to  miss  it  were 
death  ?  To  my  own  mind  this  argument  has  a  force 
akin  to  demonstration. 

I  pass  to  another  method  of  defending  the  claims 
which  one  or  another  church  sets  up  to  exclusive  ac- 
ceptance with  God.  It  is  an  unwarrantable  straining  of 
the  figurative  language  of  Scripture.  Because  the  church 
is  spoken  of  as  one  body,  vine,  or  temple,  theologians 
have  argued  that  it  is  one  outward  organization,  to  which 


THE  CHURCH.  213 

all  men  must  be  joined.  But  a  doctrine  built  on  meta- 
phor is  worth  little.  Every  kind  of  absurdity  may  find 
a  sanction  in  figures  of  speech,  explained  by  tame,  pro- 
saic, cold-hearted  commentators.  The  beautiful  forms 
of  speech  to  which  I  have  referred  were  intended  to  ex- 
press the  peculiarly  close  and  tender  unions  which  ne- 
cessarily subsist  among  all  the  enlightened  and  sincere 
disciples  of  such  a  religion  as  Christ's,  a  religion  whose 
soul,  essence,  and  breath  of  life  is  love,  which  reveals 
to  us  in  Jesus  the  perfection  of  philanthropy,  and  which 
calls  to  us  to  drink  spiritually  of  that  blood  of  self-sacri- 
fice which  was  shed  for  the  whole  human  race.  How 
infinitely  exalted  is  the  union  of  minds  and  hearts  formed 
by  such  a  religion  above  any  outward  connexion  estab- 
hshed  by  rites  and  forms  !  Yet  the  latter  has  been 
seized  on  by  the  earthly  understanding  as  the  chief  mean- 
ing of  Scripture,  and  magnified  into  supreme  importance. 
Has  not  Paul  taught  us  that  there  is  but  one  perfect 
bond.  Love  .''  *  Has  not  Christ  taught  us  that  the  seal 
set  on  his  disciples,  by  which  all  men  are  to  know  them, 
is  Love  .'^f  Is  not  this  the  badge  of  the  true  church,  the 
life  of  the  true  body  of  Christ  ?  And  is  not  every  dis- 
ciple, of  every  name  and  form,  who  is  inspired  with  this, 
embraced  indissolubly  in  the  Christian  union  ? 

Tt  is  sometimes  urged  by  those  who  maintain  the 
necessity  of  connexion  with  what  they  call  "  the  true 
church,"  that  God  has  a  right  to  dispense  his  blessings 
through  what  channels  or  on  what  terms  he  pleases  ;  that, 
if  he  sees  fit  to  communicate  his  Holy  Spirit  through  a 
certain  priesthood  or  certain  ordinances,  we  are  bound 
to  seek  the  gift  in  his  appointed  way  ;  and  that,  having 
actually  chosen  this  method  of  imparting  it,  he  may  just- 

*  Colossians,  iii.  14.  f  John,  xiii.  35, 


214  THE  CHURCH. 

\y  withhold  it  from  those  who  refuse  to  comply  with  his 
appointment.  I  reply,  that  the  right  of  the  Infinite 
Father  to  bestow  his  blessings  in  such  ways  as  to  his  in- 
finite wisdom  and  love  may  seem  best  no  man  can  be  so 
irreverent  as  to  deny.  But  is  it  not  reasonable  to  ex- 
pect that  he  will  adopt  such  methods  or  conditions  as 
will  seem  to  accord  with  his  perfection  ?  And  ought 
we  not  to  distrust  such  as  seem  to  dishonor  him  .''  Sup- 
pose, for  example,  that  I  were  told  that  the  Infinite 
Father  had  decreed  to  give  his  Holy  Spirit  to  such  as 
should  bathe  freely  in  the  sea.  Ought  I  not  to  require 
the  most  plain,  undeniable  proofs  of  a  purpose  apparently 
so  unworthy  of  his  majesty  and  goodness,  before  yield- 
ing obedience  to  it  ?  The  presumption  against  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly strong.  That  the  Infinite  Father,  who  is  ever 
present  to  the  human  soul,  to  whom  it  is  unspeakably 
dear,  who  has  created  it  for  communion  with  himself, 
who  desires  and  delights  to  impart  to  it  his  grace,  that  he 
should  ordain  sea-bathing  as  a  condition  or  means  of 
spiritual  communication  is  so  improbable  that  I  must  insist 
on  the  strongest  testimony  to  its  truth.  Now  I  meet  pre- 
cisely this  difficulty  in  the  doctrine,  that  God  bestows  his 
Holy  Spirit  on  those  who  receive  bread  and  wine,  or  flesh 
and  blood,  or  a  form  of  benediction  or  baptism,  or  any 
other  outward  ministration,  from  the  hands  or  lips  of  cer- 
tain privileged  ministers  or  priests.  It  is  the  most  glori- 
ous act  and  manifestation  of  God's  power  and  love,  to  im- 
part enlightening,  quickening,  purifying  influences  to  the 
immortal  soul.  To  imagine  that  these  descend  in  con- 
nexion with  certain  words,  signs,  or  outward  rites,  ad- 
ministered by  a  frail  fellow-creature,  and  are  withheld  or 
abridged  in  the  absence  of  such  rites,  seems,  at  first,  an 
insult  to  his  wisdom  and  goodness  ;  seems  to  bring  down 


THE  CHURCH.  21  & 

his  pure,  infinite  throne,  to  set  arbitrary  linaits  to  his 
highest  agency,  and  to  assimilate  his  worship  to  that  of 
false  gods.  The  Scriptures  teach  us  that  "  God  giveth 
grace  to  the  humble  ;  "  that  "  he  giveth  his  Holy  Spirit 
to  them  that  ask  him."  This  is  the  great  law  of  Divine 
communications  ;  and  we  can  see  its  wisdom,  because 
the  mind  which  hungers  for  Divine  assistances  is  most 
prepared  to  use  them  aright.  And  can  we  really  be- 
lieve that  the  prayers  and  aspirations  of  a  penitent,  thirst- 
ing soul  need  to  be  seconded  by  the  outward  offices  of 
a  minister  or  priest  ^  or  that  for  want  of  these  they  find 
less  easy  entrance  into  the  ear  of  the  ever-present,  all- 
loving  Father  ^  My  mind  recoils  from  this  doctrine  as 
dishonorable  to  God,  and  I  ought  not  to  receive  it  with- 
out clear  proofs.  I  want  something  more  than  meta- 
phors, or  analogies,  or  logical  inferences.  I  want  some 
express  Divine  testimony.  And  where  is  it  given  ?  Do 
we  not  know  that  thousands  and  millions  of  Christians, 
whose  lives  and  deaths  have  borne  witness  to  their  faith, 
have  been  unable  to  find  it  in  the  Scriptures,  or  anywhere 
else  .'*  And  can  we  believe  that  the  spiritual  communi- 
cation of  such  men  with  the  Divinity  has  been  forfeited 
or  impaired,  because  they  have  abstained  from  riles 
which  in  their  consciences  they  could  not  recognize  as 
of  Divine  appointment  ^  That  so  irrational  and  extrava- 
gant a  doctrine  should  enter  the  mind  of  a  man  who  has 
the  capacity  of  reading  the  New  Testament  would  seem 
an  impossibility,  did  not  history  show  us  that  it  has  been 
not  only  believed,  but  made  the  foundation  of  the  bitter- 
est intolerance  and  the  bloodiest  persecutions. 

The  notion,  that,  by  a  decree  of  God's  sovereign 
will,  his  grace  or  Spirit  flows  through  certain  rites  to 
those  who  are  in  union  with  a  certain  church,  and  that 


21 1  THE  CHURCH. 

it  is  promised  to  none  besides,  has  no  foundation  m 
Scripture  or  reason.  The  church,  as  I  have  previously- 
suggested,  is  not  an  arbitrary  appointment  ;  it  does  not 
rest  on  Will,  but  is  ordained  on  account  of  its  obvious 
fitness  to  accomplish  the  spiritual  improvement  which  is 
the  end  of  Christianity.  It  corresponds  to  our  nature. 
It  is  a  union  of  means,  and  influences,  and  offices  which 
rational  and  moral  creatures  need.  It  has  no  affinity 
with  the  magical  operations  so  common  in  false  re- 
ligions ;  its  agency  is  intelligible  and  level  to  the  com- 
mon mind.  Its  two  great  rites,  baptism  and  the  Lord's 
supper,  are  not  meant  to  act  as  charms.  When  freed 
from  the  errors  and  superstitions  which  have  clung  to 
them  for  ages,  and  when  administered,  as  they  should 
be,  with  tenderness  and  solemnity,  they  are  powerful 
means  of  bringing  great  truths  to  the  mind  and  of  touch- 
ing the  heart,  and  for  these  ends  they  are  ordained.  The 
adaptation  of  the  church  to  the  promotion  of  holiness 
among  men  is  its  grand  excellence  ;  and  where  it  ac- 
complishes this  end  its  work  is  done,  and  no  greater  can 
be  conceived  on  earth  or  in  heaven.  The  moment  we 
shut  our  eyes  on  this  truth,  and  conceive  of  the  church 
as  serving  us  by  forms  and  ordinances  which  are  effect- 
ual only  in  the  hands  of  privileged  officials  or  priests, 
we  plunge  into  the  region  of  shadows  and  superstitions  ; 
we  have  no  ground  to  tread  on,  no  light  to  guide  us. 
This  mysterious  power,  lodged  in  the  hands  of  a  (ew  fel- 
low-creatures, tends  to  give  a  servile  spirit  to  the  mass 
of  Christians,  to  impair  manliness  and  self-respect,  to 
subdue  the  intellect  to  the  reception  of  the  absurdest 
dogmas.  Religion  loses  its  simple  grandeur,  and  de- 
generates into  mechanism  and  form.  The  conscience 
is  quieted  by  something  short  of  true  repentance  ;  some- 


THE  CHURCH.  217 

thing  besides  purity  of  heart  and  life  is  made  the  qualifi- 
cation for  heaven.  The  surest  device  for  making  the 
mind  a  coward  and  a  slave  is  a  wide-spread  and  closely 
cemented  church  the  powers  of  which  are  concentrated 
in  the  hands  of  a  "  sacred  order,"  and  which  has  suc- 
ceeded in  arrogating  to  its  rites  or  ministers  a  sway  over 
the  future  world,  over  the  soul's  everlasting  weal  or  woe. 
The  inevitably  degrading  influence  of  such  a  church  is 
demonstrative  proof  against  its  Divine  original. 

There  is  no  end  to  the  volumes  wrhten  in  defence  of 
this  or  that  church  which  sets  itself  forth  as  the  only 
true  church,  and  claims  exclusive  acceptance  with  God. 
But  the  unlettered  Christian  has  an  answer  to  them  all. 
He  cannot  and  need  not  seek  it  in  libraries.     He  finds 
it,  almost  without  seeking,  in  plain  passages  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  in  his  own  heart.     He  reads,  and  he 
feels,  that  religion  is  an  Inward  Life.     This  he  knows, 
not  bv  report,  but  by  consciousness,  by  the  prostration 
of  his  soul  in  penitence,  by  the  surrender  of  his  will  to 
the   Divine,   by   overflowing   gratitude,   by  calm  trust, 
and  by  a  new  love  to  his  fellow-creatures.     Will  it  do 
to  tell  such  a  man  that  the  promises  of  Christianity  do 
not  belong  to  him,  that  access  to   God  is  denied  him, 
because  he   is   not  joined   with  this   or   that   exclusive 
church  ?     Has  not  this  access  been  granted  to  him  al- 
ready ?     Has  he  not  prayed  in  his  griefs,  and  been  con- 
soled  ?  in  his  temptations,  and  been  strengthened  }    Has 
he  not  found  God  near  in  his  sohtudes  and  in  the  great 
congregation  >    Does  he  thirst  for  any  thing  so  fervently 
as  for  perfect  assimilation  to  the  Divine  purity  }     And 
can   he  question  God's  readiness  to  help  him,  because 
he  is  unable  to  find  in  Scripture  a  command  to  bind  him- 
self to  this   or  another  self-magnifying  church  ?     How 

VOL.    VI.  19 


•* 


218  THE  CHURCH. 


easily  does  the  experience  of  the  true  Christian  brush 
away  the  cobwebs  of  theologians  !  He  loves  and  re- 
veres God,  and  in  this  spirit  has  a  foretaste  of  heaven  ; 
and  can  heaven  be  barred  against  him  by  ecclesiastical 
censures  ?  He  has  felt  the  power  of  the  cross  and 
resurrection  and  promises  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  and  is  there 
any  "height  or  depth"  of  human  exclusiveness  and 
bigotry  which  can  separate  him  from  his  Lord  ?  He 
can  die  for  truth  and  humanity  ;  and  is  there  any  man  so 
swelled  by  the  conceit  of  his  union  with  the  true  church 
as  to  stand  apart  and  say,  "  I  am  holier  than  thou  "  ? 
When,  by  means  of  the  writings  or  conversations  of 
Christians  of  various  denominations,  you  look  into  their 
hearts,  and  discern  the  deep  workings,  and  conflicts, 
and  aspirations  of  piety,  can  you  help  seeing  in  them 
tokens  of  the  presence  and  operations  of  God's  Spirit 
more  authentic  and  touching  than  in  all  the  harmonies 
and  beneficent  influences  of  the  outward  universe  ?  Who 
can  shut  up  this  Spirit  in  any  place  or  any  sect  ?  Who 
vj\\\  not  rejoice  to  witness  it  in  its  fruits  of  justice,  good- 
ness, purity,  and  piety,  wherever  they  meet  the  eye  ? 
Who  will  not  hail  it  as  the  infallible  sign  of  the  accepted 
worshipper  of  God  ? 

One  word  more  respecting  the  arguments  adduced 
in  support  of  one  or  another  exclusive  church.  They 
are  continually,  and  of  necessity,  losing  their  force. 
Arguments  owe  their  influence  very  much  to  the  mental 
condition  of  those  to  whom  they  are  addressed.  What 
is  proof  to  one  man  is  no  proof  to  another.  The  evi- 
dence which  is  triumphant  in  one  age  is  sometimes 
thought  below  notice  in  the  next.  Men's  reasonings 
on  practical  subjects  are  not  cold,  logical  processes, 
standing  separate  in  the  mind,  but  are  carried  on  in  in- 


THE  CHURCH.  219 

timate  connexion  with  their  prevalent  feelings  and  modes 
of  thou2,ht.  Generally  speaking,  that,  and  that  only,  is 
truth  to  a  man  which  accords  with  the  common  tone  of 
his  mind,  with  the  mass  of  his  impressions,  with  the  re- 
sults of  his  experience,  with  his  measure  of  intellectual 
development,  and  especially  with  those  deep  convic- 
tions and  biases  which  constitute  what  we  call  character. 
Now  it  is  the  tendency  of  increasing  civilization,  refine- 
ment, and  expansion  of  mind,  to  produce  a  tone  of 
thought  and  feeling  unfriendly  to  the  church  spirit,  to  re- 
liance on  church  forms  as  essential  to  salvation.  As  the 
world  advances  it  leaves  matters  of  form  behind.  In 
proportion  as  men  get  into  the  heart  of  things  they  are 
less  anxious  about  exteriors.  In  proportion  as  religion 
becomes  a  clear  reality  we  grow  tired  of  shows.  In 
the  progress  of  ages  there  spring  up  in  greater  numbers 
men  of  mature  thought  and  spiritual  freedom,  who  unite 
self-reverence  with  reverence  of  God,  and  who  cannot, 
without  a  feehng  approaching  shame  and  conscious  degra- 
dation, submit  to  a  church  which  accumulates  outward, 
rigid,  mechanical  observances  towards  the  Infinite  Father. 
A  voice  within  them,  which  they  cannot  silence,  pro- 
tests against  the  perpetual  repetition  of  the  same  signs, 
motions,  words,  as  unworthy  of  their  own  spiritual  pow- 
ers, and  of  Him  who  deserves  the  highest  homage  of  the 
reason  and  the  heart.  Their  filial  spirit  protests  against 
it.  In  common  life,  a  refined,  lofty  mind  expresses  it- 
self in  simple,  natural,  unconstrained  manners  ;  and  the 
same  tendency,  though  often  obstructed,  is  manifested  in 
religion.  The  progress  of  Christianity,  which  must  go 
on,  is  but  another  name  for  the  growing  knowledge  and 
experience  of  that  spiritual  worship  of  the  Father  which 
Christ  proclaimed  as  the  end  of  his  mission  ;  and  before 


220  THE  CHURCH. 


this  the  old  idolatrous  reliance  on  ecclesiastical  forms 
and  organizations  cannot  stand.  There  is  thus  a  perpet- 
ually swelling  current  which  exclusive  churches  have  to 
stem,  and  which  must  sooner  or  later  sweep  away  their 
proud  pretensions.  What  avails  it,  that  this  or  another 
church  summons  to  its  aid  fathers,  traditions,  venerated 
usages  ?  The  spirit,  the  genius  of  Christianity  is  stronger 
than  all  these.  The  great  ideas  of  the  religion  must 
prevail  over  narrow,  perverse  interpretations  of  it.  On 
this  ground  I  have  no  alarm  at  reports  of  the  triumphs 
of  the  Catholic  church.  The  spirit  of  Christianity  is 
stronger  than  popes  and  councils.  Its  venerableness  and 
divine  beauty  put  to  shame  the  dignities  and  pomps  of  a 
hierarchy  ;  and  men  must  more  and  more  recognize  it 
as  alone  essential  to  salvation. 

From  the  w^hole  discussion  through  which  I  have  now 
led  you  you  will  easily  gather  how  T  regard  the  Church, 
and  what  importance  I  attach  to  it.  In  its  true  idea,  or 
regarded  as  the  union  of  those  who  partake  in  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  Christ,  I  revere  it  as  the  noblest  of  all  associa- 
tions. Our  common  social  unions  are  poor  by  its  side. 
In  the  world  we  form  ties  of  interest,  pleasure,  and  am- 
bition. We  come  together  as  creatures  of  time  and 
sense,  for  transient  amusement  or  display.  In  the  church 
we  meet  as  God's  children  ;  we  recognize  in  ourselves 
something  higher  than  this  animal  and  worldly  life.  We 
come  that  holy  feeling  may  spread  from  heart  to  heart. 
The  church,  in  its  true  idea,  is  a  retreat  from  the  world. 
We  meet  in  it,  that,  by  union  with  the  holy,  we  may 
get  strength  to  withstand  our  common  intercourse  with 
the  impure.  We  meet  to  adore  God,  to  open  our  souls 
to   his   Spirit,  and,  by  recognition  of  the  common  Fa- 


THE  CHURCH.  221 

tlier,  to  forget  all  distinction  among  ourselves,  to  embrace 
all  men  as  brothers.  This  spiritual  union  with  the  holy 
who  are  departed  and  who  yet  live  is  the  beginning  of 
ihat  perfect  fellowship  which  constitutes  heaven.  Tt  is 
to  survive  all  ties.  The  bonds  of  husband  and  wife, 
parent  and  child,  are  severed  at  death  ;  the  union  of  the 
virtuous  friends  of  God  and  man  is  as  eternal  as  virtue, 
and  this  union  is  the  essence  of  the  true  church. 

To  the  church  relation,  in  this  broad,  spiritual  view 
of  it,  I  ascribe  the  highest  dignity  and  importance.  But 
as  to  union  with  a  particular  denomination  or  with 
a  society  of  Christians  for  public  worship  and  instruc- 
tion, this,  however  important,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as' 
the  highest  means  of  grace.  We  ought,  indeed,  to  seek 
help  for  ourselves,  and  to  give  help  to  others,  by  up- 
holding religious  institutions,  by  meeting  together  in  the 
name  of  Christ.  The  influence  of  Christianity  is  per- 
petuated and  extended,  in  no  small  degree,  by  the  pub- 
lic offices  of  piety,  by  the  visible  "  communion  of 
saints."  But  it  is  still  true  that  the  public  means  of 
religion  are  not  its  chief  means.  Private  helps  to  piety 
are  the  most  efficacious.  The  great  work  of  religion  is 
to  be  done,  not  in  society,  but  in  secret,  in  the  retired 
soul,  in  the  silent  closet.  Communion  with  God  is  emi- 
nently the  means  of  religion,  the  nutriment  and  life  of 
the  soul,  and  we  can  commune  with  God  In  solitude  as 
nowhere  else.  Here  his  presence  may  be  most  felt. 
It  is  by  the  breathing  of  the  unrestrained  soul,  by  the 
opening  of  the  whole  heart  to  "  Him  who  seeth  in 
secret  "  ;  it  Is  by  reviewing  our  own  spiritual  history,  by 
searching  deeply  into  ourselves,  by  solitary  thought,  and 
solitary  solemn  consecration  of  ourselves  to  a  new  vir- 
tue ;  it  is  b}  these  acts,  and  not  by  public  gatherings, 
19* 


222  THE  CHURCH. 

that  we  chiefly  make  progress  in  the  religious  life.  It 
is  common  to  speak  of  the  house  of  pubhc  \vorsl)ip  ns  a 
holy  place  ;  but  it  has  no  exclusive  sanctity.  The  ho- 
liest spot  on  earth  is  that  where  the  soul  breathes  its 
purest  vows,  and  forms  or  executes  its  noblest  pur- 
poses ;  and  on  this  ground,  were  I  to  seek  the  holiest 
spot  in  your  city,  I  should  not  go  to  your  splendid  sanc- 
tuaries, but  to  closets  of  private  prayer.  Peihaps  the 
"Holy  of  Holies  "  among  you  is  some  dark,  narrow 
room  from  which  most  of  us  would  shrink  as  unfit  for 
human  habitation  ;  but  God  dwells  there.  Ke  hears 
there  music  more  grateful  than  the  swell  of  all  your  or- 
gans, sees  there  a  beauty  such  as  nature,  in  these  her 
robes  of  spring,  does  not  unfold  ;  for  there  he  meets, 
and  sees,  and  hears  the  humblest,  most  thankful,  most 
trustful  worshipper  ;  sees  the  sorest  trials  serenely  borne, 
the  deepest  injuries  forgiven  ;  sees  toils  and  sacrifices 
cheerfully  sustained,  and  death  approached  through 
poverty  and  lonely  illness  with  a  triumphant  faith.  The 
consecration  which  such  virtues  shed  over  the  obscurest 
spot  is  not  and  cannot  be  communicated  by  any  of  those 
outward  rites  by  which  our  splendid  structures  are  dedi- 
cated to  God. 

You  see  the  rank  which  belongs  to  the  church,  wheth- 
er gathered  in  one  place  or  spread  over  the  whole  earth. 
It  is  a  sacred  and  blessed  union  ;  but  must  not  be  magni- 
fied above  other  means  and  helps  of  religion.  The 
great  aids  of  piety  are  secret,  not  public.  The  Chris- 
tian cannot  live  without  private  prayer  ;  he  may  live  and 
make  progress  without  a  particular  church.  Providence 
may  place  us  far  from  the  resorts  of  our  fellow-disciples, 
beyond  the  sound  of  the  Sabbath-bell,  beyond  all  ordi- 
nances ;  and  we   may  find   Sabbaths  and  ordinances  in 


THE  CHURCH.  223 

our  own  spirits.  Illness  may  separate  us  from  the  out- 
ward church  as  well  as  from  the  living  world,  and  the 
soul  may  yet  be  in  health  and  prosper.  There  have  been 
men  of  eminent  piety  who,  from  conscience,  have  separat- 
ed themselves  from  all  denominraions  of  Christians  and 
all  outward  worship.  ISIilton,  that  great  soul,  in  the  latter 
years  of  his  life  forsook  all  temples  made  with  hands,  and 
worshipped  wholly  in  the  inward  sanctuary.  So  did  Wil- 
liam Law,  the  author  of  that  remarkable  book,  "  The 
Serious  Call  to  a  Devout  and  Holy  Life."  His  excess 
of  devotion  (for  in  him  devotion  ran  into  excess)  led 
him  to  disparage  all  occasional  acts  of  piety.  He  lived 
in  solitude,  that  he  might  make  life  a  perpetual  prayer. 
These  men  are  not  named  as  models  in  this  particular. 
They  mistook  the  wants  of  the  soul,  and  misinterpreted 
the  Scriptures.  Even  they,  with  all  their  spirituality, 
would  have  found  moral  strength  and  holy  impulse  in  re- 
ligious association.  But,  with  such  examples  before  us, 
we  learn  not  to  exclude  men  from  God's  favor  because 
severed  from  the  outward  church. 

The  doctrine  of  this  Discourse  is  plain.  Inward  sanc- 
tity, pure  love,  disinterested  attachment  to  God  and 
man,  obedience  of  heart  and  life,  sincere  excellence  of 
character,  this  is  the  one  thing  needful,  this  the  essential 
thing  in  religion  ;  and  all  things  else,  ministers,  churches, 
ordinances,  places  of  worship,  all  are  but  means,  helps, 
secondary  influences,  and  utterly  worthless  when  separat- 
ed from  this.  '  To  imagine  that  God  regards  any  thing 
but  this,  that  he  looks  at  any  thing  but  the  heart,  is  to 
dishonor  him,  to  express  a  mournful  insensibility  to  his 
pure  character.  Goodness,  purity,  virtue,  this  is  the 
only  distinction  in   God's  sight.      This  is  intrinsically, 


224  THE  CHURCH. 

essentially,  everlastingly,  and  by  its  own  nature,  lovely, 
beautiful,  glorious,  divine.  It  owes  nothing  to  time,  to 
circumstance,  to  outward  connexions.  It  shines  by  its 
own  light.  It  is  the  sun  of  the  spiritual  universe.  It  is 
God  himself  dwelling  in  the  human  soul.  Can  any  man 
think  lightly  of  it  because  it  has  not  grown  up  in  a  cer- 
tain church,  or  exalt  any  church  above  it .''  My  friends, 
one  of  the  grandest  truths  of  religion  is,  the  supreme 
importance  of  character,  of  virtue,  of  that  divine  spirit 
which  shone  out  in  Christ.  The  grand  heresy  is,  to 
substitute  any  thing  for  this,  whether  creed,  or  form,  or 
church.  One  of  the  greatest  wrongs  to  Christ  is,  to 
despise  his  character,  his  virtue,  in  a  disciple  who  hap- 
pens to  wear  a  different  name  from  our  own. 

When  I  represent  to  myself  true  virtue  or  goodness  ; 
not  that  which  is  made  up  of  outward  proprieties  and  pru- 
dent calculations,  but  that  which  chooses  duty  for  its  own 
sake  and  as  the  first  concern  ;  which  respects  impartially 
the  rights  of  every  human  being  ;  which  labors  and  suffers 
with  patient  resolution  for  truth  and  others'  welfare  ;  which 
blends  energy  and  sweetness,  deep  humility  and  self- 
reverence  ;  which  places  joyful  faith  in  the  perfection 
of  God,  communes  with  him  intimately,  and  strives  to 
subject  to  his  pure  will  all  thought,  imagination,  and 
desire  ;  which  lays  hold  on  the  promise  of  everlasting 
life,  and  in  the  strength  of  this  hope  endures  calmly  and 
firmly  the  sorest  evils  of  the  present  state  ;  when  I  set 
before  me  this  virtue,  all  the  distinctions  on  which  men 
value  themselves  fade  away.  Wealth  is  poor  ;  worldly 
honor  is  mean  ;  outward  forms  are  beggarly  elements. 
Condition,  country,  church,  all  sink  into  unimportance. 
Before  this  simple  greatness  I  bow,  I  revere.  The 
robed  priest,  the  gorgeous  altar,  the  great  assembly,  the 


THE  CHURCH.  225 

pealing  organ,  all  the  exteriors  of  religion,  vanish  from 
my  siglit  as  I  look  at  the  good  and  great  man,  the  holy, 
disinterested  soul.  Even  I,  with  vision  so  dim,  with 
heart  so  cold,  can  see  and  feel  the  divinity,  the  grandeur 
of  true  goodness.  How,  then,  must  God  regard  it  ? 
To  his  pure  eye  how  lovely  must  it  be  !  And  can  any 
of  us  turn  from  it,  because  some  water  has  not  been 
dropped  on  its  forehead,  or  some  bread  put  into  its  lips 
by  a  minister  or  priest ;  or  because  it  has  not  learned  to 
repeat  some  mysterious  creed  which  a  church  or  human 
council  has  ordained  } 

My  friends,  reverence  virtue,  holiness,  the  upright 
will  which  inflexibly  cleaves  to  duty  and  the  pure  law 
of  God.  Reverence  nothing  in  comparison  with  it. 
Regard  this  as  the  end,  and  all  outward  services  as  the 
means.  Judge  of  men  by  this.  Think  no  man  the  better, 
no  man  the  worse,  for  the  church  he  belongs  to.  Try  him 
by  his  fruits.  Expel  from  your  breasts  the  demon  of  sec- 
tarianism, narrowness,  bigotry,  intolerance.  This  is  not, 
as  we  are  apt  to  think,  a  slight  sin.  It  is  a  denial  of  the 
supremacy  of  goodness.  It  sets  up  something,  wheth- 
er' a  form  or  dogma,  above  the  virtue  of  the  heart  and 
the  life.  Sectarianism  immures  itself  in  its  particular 
church  as  in  a  dungeon,  and  is  there  cut  off  from  the 
free  air,  the  cheerful  light,  the  goodly  prospects,  the 
celestial  beauty  of  the  church  universal. 

]My  friends,  I  know  that  I  am  addressing  those  who 
hold  various  opinions  as  to  the  controverted  points  of 
theology.  We  have  grown  up  under  different  influ- 
ences. We  bear  different  names.  But  if  we  purpose 
solemnly  to  do  God's  will,  and  are  following  the  precepts 
and  example  of  Christ,  we  are  one  church,  and  let  noth- 
ing divide  us.     Diversities  of  opinion  may  incline  us  to 


226  THE  CHURCH. 

worship  under  different  roofs  ;  or  diversities  of  tastes  op 
habit,  to  worship  with  different  forms.  But  these  va- 
rieties are  not  schisms  ;  they  do  not  break  the  unity  of 
Christ's  church.  We  may  still  honor  and  love  and  re- 
joice in  one  another's  spiritual  life  and  progress  as  truly 
as  if  we  were  cast  into  one  and  the  same  unyielding 
form.  God  loves  variety  in  nature  and  in  the  human 
soul,  nor  does  he  reject  it  in  Christian  worship.  In 
many  great  truths,  in  those  which  are  most  quickening, 
purifying,  and  consoling,  we  all,  I  hope,  agree.  There 
is,  too,  a  common  ground  of  practice,  aloof  from  all 
controversy,  on  which  we  may  all  meet.  We  may  all 
unite  hearts  and  hands  in  doing  good,  in  fulfilling  God's 
purposes  of  love  towards  our  race,  in  toiling  and  suffer- 
ing for  the  cause  of  humanity,  in  spreading  intelligence, 
freedom,  and  virtue,  in  making  God  known  for  the  rever- 
ence, love,  and  imitation  of  his  creatures,  in  resisting 
the  abuses  and  corruptions  of  past  ages,  in  exploring  and 
drying  up  the  sources  of  poverty,  in  rescuing  the  fallen 
from  intemperance,  in  succouring  the  orphan  and  widow, 
in  enlightening  and  elevating  the  depressed  portions  of 
the  community,  in  breaking  the  yoke  of  the  oppressed 
and  enslaved,  in  exposing  and  withstanding  the  spirit 
and  horrors  of  war,  in  sending  God's  Word  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  in  redeeming  the  world  from  sin  and 
woe.  The  angels  and  pure  spirits  who  visit  our  earth 
come  not  to  join  a  sect,  but  to  do  good  to  all.  May 
this  universal  charity  descend  on  us,  and  possess  our 
hearts  ;  may  our  narrowness,  exclusiveness,  and  bigotry 
melt  away  under  this  mild,  celestial  fire.  Thus  we  shall 
not  only  join  ourselves  to  Christ's  Universal  Church  on 
earth,  but  to  the  Invisible  Church,  to  the  innumerable 
company  of  the  just  made  perfect,  in  the  mansions  of 
everlasting  purity  and  peace. 


THE  CHURCH.  227 


NOTES. 


I  HAVE  spoken  in  this  Discourse  of  the  Romish  church 
as  excluding  from  salvation  those  who  do  not  submit  to  it. 
I  know,  and  rejoice  to  know,  that  many  Catholics  are  too 
wise  and  ^ood  to  hold  this  doctrine  ;  but  the  church,  in- 
terpreted by  its  past  words  and  acts,  is  not  so  liberal. 

1  have  also  expressed  my  reverence  for  the  illustrious 
names  which  have  adorned  the  English  church.  This 
church  sets  up  higher  claims  than  any  other  in  the  Protes- 
tant world  ;  but  by  a  man  acquainted  with  its  early  history 
it  will  be  seen  to  be  clothed  with  no  peculiar  authority.  If 
any  Protestant  church  deserves  to  be  called  a  creature  of 
the  state,  it  is  this.  It  was  shaped  by  the  sovereign  very 
much  after  his  own  will.  It  is  a  problem  in  history,  how 
the  English  people,  so  sturdy  and  stout-hearted  in  the  main, 
could  be  so  tame  and  flexible  in  matters  of  religion,  under 
Henry  the  Eighth,  Edward  the  Sixth,  Mary,  and  Eliza- 
beth. They  seem  to  have  received,  almost  as  unresisting- 
ly as  the  coin,  the  image  and  superscription  of  the  king. 
The  causes  of  this  yieldingness  are  to  be  found  in  the 
averseness  to  civil  broils  to  which  the  nation  had  been 
brought  by  the  recent  bloody  and  exhausting  wars  of  the 
Roses  ;  in  the  formidable  power  of  the  Tudor  sovereigns  ; 
in  the  insular  position  of  England,  and  her  distance  from 
Rome,  which  checked  the  domination  of  the  papacy  ;  in 
the  ignorance  of  the  people  ;  in  the  ravenousness  of  the 
nobles  for  the  property  of  the  church  in  the  first  instance, 


228  THE  CHURCH. 

and  afterwards  in  their  greediness  for  court  favor.  This 
strange  pliancy  is  a  stain  on  the  annals  of  the  country. 
It  was  in  the  Puritans  that  the  old  national  sturdiness  re- 
vived, that  England  became  herself  again.  These  men 
were  rude  in  aspect,  and  forbidding  in  manners  ;  but,  with 
all  their  sternness,  narrowness,  frowning  theology,  and 
high  religious  pretensions,  they  were  the  master  spirits  of 
their  times.  To  their  descendants  it  is  delightful  to  think 
of  the  service  they  rendered  to  the  civil  and  religious 
liberties  of  England  and  the  world,  and  to  recall  their 
deep,  vital  piety,  a  gem  most  rudely  set,  but  too  precious 
to  be  overvalued. 


Since  the  preceding  Discourse  has  been  printed,  the 
following  extract  from  an  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review 
for  July,  1841,  entitled  "The  Port-Royalists,"  has  been 
deemed  so  strikingly  coincident  that  it  is  herewith  ap- 
pended. 

"  But  for  every  labor  under  the  sun,  says  the  Wise  Man, 
there  is  a  time.  There  is  a  time  for  bearing  testimony 
against  the  errors  of  Rome  ;  why  not  also  a  time  for  testify- 
ing to  the  sublime  virtues  with  which  those  errors  have  been 
so  often  associated  ?  Are  we  for  ever  to  admit  and  never 
to  practise  the  duties  of  kindness  and  mutual  forbearance  ? 
Does  Christianity  consist  in  a  vivid  perception  of  the  faults, 
and  an  obtuse  blindness  to  the  merits  of  those  who  differ 
from  us  ?  Is  charity  a  virtue  only  when  we  ourselves  are 
the  objects  of  it  ?  Is  there  not  a  church  as  pure  and  more 
catholic  than  that  of  Oxford  or  Rome,  —  a  church  com- 
prehending M^ithin  its  limits  every  human  being  who,  ac- 
cording to  the  measure  of  the  knowledge  placed  within 
his  reach,  strives  habitually  to  be  conformed  to  the  will 
of  the  common  Father  of  us  all  ?  To  indulge  hope  be- 
yond the  pale  of  some  narrow  communion  has,  by  each 
Christian  society  in  its  turn,  been  denounced  as  a  daring 
presumption.  Yet  hope  has  come  to  all  ;  and  with  her, 
faith  and  charity,  her  inseparable  companions.     Amidst 


f  THE  CHURCH.  229 

the  shock  of  contending  creeds  and  the  uproar  of  anathe- 
mas they  who  have  ears  to  hear  and  hearts  to  understand 
have  listened  to  gentler  and  more  kindly  sounds.  Good 
men  may  debate  as  polemics,  but  they  will  feel  as  Chris- 
tians On  the  universal  mind  of  Christendom  is  mdelibly 
encrraven  one  image,  towards  which  the  eyes  of  all  are 
mo^re  or  less  earnestly  directed.  Whoever  has  himself 
cauaht  any  resemblance,  however  faint  and  imperiect,  to 
that'divine  and  benignant  Original,  has,  in  his  measure, 
learned  to  recognize  a  brother  wherever  he  can  discern 
the  same  resemblance.  u-  u   • 

"There  is  an  essential  unity  in  that  kingdom  which  is 
not  of  this  world.     But  within  the  provinces  of  that  mighty 
state  there  is  room  for  endless  varieties  of  administration, 
and  for  local  laws  and  customs  widely  differing  from  each 
other.     The  unity  consists  in  the  one  object  of  worship, 
the  one  object  of  affiance,  the  one  source  of  virtue,  the 
one  cementing  principle  of  mutual  love  which  pervades 
and  animates  the  whole.     The  diversities  are,  and  must 
be    as  numerous  and  intractable  as  are  the  essential  dis- 
tinctions which  nature,  habit,  and  circumstances  have  cre- 
ated amongst  men.    Uniformity  of  creeds,  of  discipline,  of 
ritual,   and   of  ceremonies,  in  such   a  world  as   ours  !  a 
world  where  no  two   men  are  not  as  distinguishable   in 
their  mental  as  in  their  physical  aspect  ;  where  every  petty 
communitv  has  its  separate  system  of  civd  government  ; 
where  alHhat  meets  the  eye,  and  all  that  arrests  the  ear 
has  the  stamp  of  boundless  and  infinite  variety  !     What 
are  the  harmonies  of  tone,  of  color,  and  of  form,  but  the 
result  of  contrasts  ;   of  contrasts  held  in  subordmation  to 
one   pervading   principle,   which   reconciles  without   con- 
founding the  component  elements  of  the  music,  the  pamt- 
ing     or  the   structure  ?     In  the    physical  works  of  God 
beauty  could  have  no  existence  without  endless  diversities. 
Why  assume  that  in  religious  society  — a  work  not  less 
surely  to  be  ascribed  to  the  supreme  Author  of  all  things 
—  this  law  is  absolutely  reversed  ?     Were  it  possible  to 
subdue  that   innate  tendency  of  the  human  mind  which 
compels  men  to  differ  in  religious  opinions  and  observan- 
ces, at  least  as  widely  as  on  all  other  subjects,  what  would 
be  the  results  of  such  a  triumph  ?     Where  would  then  be 
the   free  comparison   and  the   continual  enlargement  of 
thought  ;  where  the  self-distrusts  which  are  the  springs  of 

VOL.    VI.  20 


230  THE  CHURCH. 

humility,  or  the  mutual  dependencies  which  are  the  bonds 
of  love  ?  He  who  made  us  with  this  infinite  variety  in  our 
intellectual  and  physical  constitution  must  have  foreseen, 
and  foreseeing,  must  have  intended,  a  corresponding  dis- 
similarity in  the  opinions  of  his  creatures  on  all  questions 
submitted  to  their  judgment  and  proposed  for  their  ac- 
ceptance. For  truth  is  his  law  ;  and  if  all  will  profess  to 
think  alike,  all  must  live  in  the  habitual  violation  of  it. 

"Zeal  for  unitbrmity  attests  the  latent  distrusts,  not 
the  firm  convictions  of  the  zealot.  In  proportion  to  the 
strength  of  our  self-reliance  is  our  indifference  to  the 
multiplication  of  suffrages  in  favor  of  our  own  judgment. 
Our  minds  are  steeped  in  imagery  ;  and  where  the  visible 
form  is  not,  the  impalpable  spirit  escapes  the  notice  of  the 
unreflecting  multitude.  In  common  hands  analysis  stops 
at  the  species  or  the  genus,  and  cannot  rise  to  the  order 
or  the  class.  To  distinguish  birds  from  fishes,  beasts  frem 
insects,  limits  the  efforts  of  the  vulgar  observer  of  the  face 
of  nature.  But  Cuvier  could  trace  the  sublime  unity,  the 
universal  type,  the  fontal  Idea  existing  in  the  creative  In- 
telligAice,  which  connects  as  one  the  mammoth  and  the 
snail.  So,  common  observers  can  distinguish  from  each 
other  the  different  varieties  of  religious  society,  and  can 
rise  no  higher.  Where  one  assembly  worships  with  har- 
monies of  music,  fumes  of  incense,  ancient  liturgies,  and 
a  gorgeous  ceremonial,  and  another  listens  to  the  unaided 
voice  of  a  single  pastor,  they  can  perceive  and  record  the 
differences  ;  but  the  hidden  ties  which  unite  them  both 
escape  such  observation.  All  appears  as  contrast,  and  all 
ministers  to  antipathy  and  discord.  It  is  our  belief  that 
these  things  may  be  rightly  viewed  in  a  different  aspect, 
and  yet  with  the  most  severe  conformity  to  the  Divine 
will,  whether  as  intimated  by  natural  religion,  or  as  re- 
vealed in  Holy  Scripture.  We  believe,  that,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  an  enlightened  charity,  many  Christian  societies 
who  are  accustomed  to  denounce  each  other's  errors  will 
at  length  come  to  be  regarded  as  members  in  common  of 
the  one  great  and  comprehensive  church,  in  which  diver- 
sities of  forms  are  harmonized  by  an  all-pervading  unity 
of  spirit.  For  ourselves,  at  least,  we  should  deeply  re- 
gret to  conclude  that  we  are  aliens  from  that  great  Chris- 
tian commonwealth  of  which  the  nuns  and  recluses  of  the 
valley  of  Port-Royal  were  members,  and  members  assured- 
ly of  no  common  excellence." 


THE 

DUTY   OF   THE   FREE   STATES 

OR 

REMARKS 

SUGGESTED  BY  THE  CASE  OF  THE  CREOLE. 
PART  I. 


The  Author  is  aware  that  the  following  argument  might  have  been  more 
comiensed;  had  circumstances  allowed;  but  he  is  reconciled  to  publishing 
it  in  the  present  form  by  the  belief  that  a  degree  of  expansion  and  even  of 
repetition  may  adapt  it  to  its  end,  which  is,  to  bring  the  subject  within  the 
comprehension  of  all  who  desire  to  know  the  truth.  He  now  presents  the 
first  part  of  his  work,  in  the  hope  that  the  second  will  soon  follow. 

Boston,  March  26,  1842. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 


I  RESPECTFULLY  ask  your  attention,  fellow-citizens 
of  the  Free  States,  to  a  subject  of  great  and  pressing 
importance.  The  case  of  the  Creole,  taken  by  itself,  or 
separated  from  the  principles  which  are  complicated  with 
it,  however  it  might  engage  my  feelings,  would  not  have 
moved  me  to  the  present  Address.  I  am  not  writing  to 
plead  the  cause  of  a  hundred  or  more  men,  scattered 
through  the  West  Indies,  and  claimed  as  slaves.  In  a 
world  abounding  with  so  much  wrong  and  woe,  we  at 
this  distance  can  spend  but  a  few  thoughts  on  these 
strangers.  I  rejoice  that  they  are  free  ;  I  trust  that  they 
will  remain  so  ;  and  with  these  feelings,  I  dismiss  them 
from  my  thoughts.  The  case  of  the  Creole  involves 
great  and  vital  principles,  and  as  such  I  now  invite  to  it 
your  serious  consideration. 

The  case  is  thus  stated  in  the  letter  of  the  American 
Secretary  of  State  to  the  American  Minister  in  London  : 

"It  appears  that  the  brig  Creole,  of  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia, Ensor  master,  bound  to  New  Orleans,  sailed  from 
Hampton  roads  with  a  cargo  of  merchandise,  principally 
tobacco,  and  slaves,  about  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  in 
number  ;  that,  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  of  November, 
some  of  the  slaves  rose  upon  the  crew  of  the  vessel,  mur- 
dered a  passenger  named  Hewell,  who  owned  some  of  the 
negroes,  wounded  the  captain  dangerously,  and  the  first 
mate  and  two  of  the  crew  severely  ;  that  the  slaves  soon 
20* 


234  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

obtained  complete  possession  of  the  brig,  which,  under 
their  direction,  was  taken  into  the  port  of  Nassau,  in  the 
island  of  New  Providence,  where  she  arrived  on  the 
morning  of  the  9th  of  the  same  month  ;  that,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  American  consul  in  that  place,  the  governor 
ordered  a  guard  on  board,  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the 
mutineers,  and  with  a  view  to  an  investigation  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case  ;  that  such  investigation  was  ac- 
cordingly made  by  two  British  magistrates,  and  that  an 
examination  also  took  place  by  the  consul  ;  that,  on  the 
report  of  the  magistrates,  nineteen  of  the  slaves  were 
imprisoned  by  the  local  authorities,  as  having  been  con- 
cerned in  the  mutiny  and  murder  ;  and  their  surrender  to 
the  consul,  to  be  sent  to  the  United  States  for  trial  for 
these  crimes,  v/as  refused,  on  the  ground,  that  the  gov- 
ernor wished  first  to  communicate  with  the  government  ia 
England  on  the  subject  ;  that,  through  the  interference 
of  the  colonial  authorities,  and  even  before  the  military 
guard  was  removed,  the  greater  number  of  the  slaves 
were  liberated,  and  encouraged  to  go  beyond  the  power 
of  the  master  of  the  vessel,  or  the  American  consul,  by 
proceedings  which  neither  of  them  could  control.  This  is 
the  substance  of  the  case,  as  stated  in  two  protests,  one 
made  at  Nassau,  and  one  at  New  Orleans,  and  the  con- 
sul's letters,  together  with  sundry  depositions  taken  by 
him  ;   copies  of  all  which  are  herewith  transmitted." 

This  statement  of  the  case  of  the  Creole  is  derived 
chiefly  from  the  testimony  of  the  officers  and  crew  of 
the  vessel,  and  very  naturally  falls  under  suspicion  of 
being  colored,  in  part,  by  prejudice  and  passion.  We 
must  hear  the  other  side,  and  compare  all  the  witnesses, 
before  we  can  understand  the  whole  case.  The  main 
facts,  however,  cannot  be  misunderstood.  The  shipping 
of  the  slaves  at  Norfolk,  the  rising  of  a  part  of  their 
number  against  the  officers  of  the  vessel,  the  success  of 
the  insurrection,  the  carrying  of  the  vessel  into  the  port 
of  Nassau,  and  the  recognition  and  treatment  of  the 
slaves  as  free  by  the  British  authorities  of  that  place  * 
these  material  points  of  the  case  cannot  be  questioned. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  235 

The  letter  of  our  government,  stating  these  facts  as 
grounds  of  complaint  against  England,  is  written  with 
much  caution,  and  seems  wanting  in  the  tone  of  earnest- 
ness and  confidence  which  naturally  belongs  to  a  good 
cause.  It  does  not  go  to  the  heart  of  the  case.  It  re- 
lies more  on  the  comity  of  nations  than  on  principles  of 
justice  and  natural  law.  Still,  in  one  rospect  it  is  de- 
cided. It  protests  against,  and  complains  of,  the  British 
authorities,  and  "calls  loudly  for  redress."  It  maintains 
that  "it  was  the  plain  and  obvious  duty"  of  the  authori- 
ties at  Nassau  to  give  aid  and  succour  to  the  officers  of 
the  Creole  in  reducing  the  slaves  to  subjection,  in  re- 
suming their  voyage  with  their  cargo  of  men  as  well  as 
of  tobacco,  and  in  bringing  the  insurgents  to  trial  in  this 
country.  It  maintains  that  the  claims  of  the  American 
masters  to  their  slaves  existed  and  were  in  force  in  the 
British  port,  and  that  these  claims  ought  to  have  been 
acknowledged  and  sustained  by  the  British  magistrate. 
The  plain  inference  is,  that  the  government  of  the  United 
States  is  bound  to  spread  a  shield  over  American  slavery 
abroad  as  well  as  at  home.      Such  is  the  letter. 

This  document  I  propose. to  examine,  and  I  shall  do 
so  chiefly  for  two  reasons  :;  First,  because  it  maintains 
morally  unsound  and  pernicious  doctrines,  and  is  fitted 
to  deprave  the  public  mind  ;  and  secondly,  because  it 
tends  to  commit  the  Free  States  to  the  defence  and 
support  of  slavery .^  This  last  point  is  at  this  moment  of 
peculiar  importance.  The  Free  States  are  gradually 
and  silently  coming  more  and  more  into  connexion  with 
slavery  ;  are  unconsciously  learning  to  regard  it  as  a 
national  interest ;  and  are  about  to  pledge  their  wealth 
and  strength,  their  bones  and  muscles  and  lives,  to  its 
defence.     Slavery  is  mingling  more  and  more  with  the 


236  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

politics  of  the  country,  determining  more  and  more  th  j 
individuals  who  shall  hold  office,  and  the  great  measures 
on  which  the  public  weal  depends.  It  is  time  for  the 
Free  States  to  wake  up  to  the  subject ;  to  weigh  it  de- 
liberately ;  to  think  of  it,  not  casually,  when  some  start- 
ling fact  forces  it  up  into  notice,  but  with  earnest,  con- 
tinued, solemiv  attention  ;  to  inquire  into  their  duties  in 
regard  to  it  ;  to  lay  down  their  principles  ;  to  mark  out 
their  course  ;  and  to  resolve  on  acquitting  themselves 
righteously  towards  God,  towards  the  South,  and  to- 
wards themselves.  The  North  has  never  come  to  this 
great  matter  in  earnest.  We  have  trifled  with  it.  We 
have  left  things  to  take  their  course.  We  have  been  too 
much  absorbed  in  pecuniary  interests  to  watch  the  bear- 
ing of  slavery  on  the  government.  Pei'haps  we  have 
wanted  the  spirit,  the  manhness,  to  look  the  subject  fully 
in  the  face.  Accordingly,  the  slave-power  has  been 
allowed  to  stamp  itself  on  the  national  policy,  and  to 
fortify  itself  with  the  national  arm.  For  the  pecuniary 
injury  to  our  prosperity  which  may  be  traced  to  this 
source  I  care  little  or  nothing.  There  is  a  higher  view 
of  the  case.  There  is  a  more  vital  question  to  be  settled 
than  that  of  interest,  the  question  of  duty  ;  and  to  this 
my  remarks  will  be  confined. 

The  letter  which  is  now  to  be  examined  may  be  re- 
garded either  as  the  work  of  an  individual,  or  as  the 
work  of  the  government.  I  shall  regard  it  in  the  latter 
light  alone.  Its  personal  bearings  are  of  no  moment. 
No  individual  will  enter  my  thoughts  in  this  discussion. 
I  regard  the  letter  as  issuing  from  the  Cabinet,  as  an  Ex- 
ecutive document,  as  laying  down  the  principles  to  which 
the  public  policy  is  in  danger  of  being  conformed,  as 
fitted  to  draw  the  whole  country  into  support  of  an  in- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  237 

stitution  which  the  Free  States  abhor.  With  the  opin- 
ions of  an  individual  I  have  nothing  to  do.  Corrupt 
principles  adopted  by  the  government,  —  these,  and 
these  alone,  it  will  be  my  object  to  expose. 

There  is  a  difficulty  lying  at  the  threshold  of  such  a 
discussion,  which  1  should  be  glad  to  remove.  A  North- 
ern man  writing  on  slavery  is  supposed  to  write  as  a 
Northern  man,  to  be  swayed  by  State  feelings  and  local 
biases  ;  and  the  distrust  thus  engendered  is  a  bar  to  the 
conviction  which  he  might  otherwise  produce.  But  the 
prejudices  which  grow  out  of  the  spot  where  we  live  are 
far  from  being  necessary  or  universal.  There  are  per- 
sons whose  peculiarity,  perhaps  whose  infirmity  it  is,  to 
be  exceedingly  alive  to  evils  in  their  neighbourhood,  to 
defects  in  the  state  of  society  in  which  they  live,  whilst 
their  imaginations  are  apt  to  cast  rosy  hues  over  distant 
scenes.  There  are  persons  who,  by  living  in  retirement 
and  holding  intercourse  with  gifted  minds  in  other  re- 
gions, are  even  in  danger  of  wanting  a  proper  local  at- 
tachment, and  of  being  unjust  to  their  own  homes. 
There  are  also  worthier  causes  which  counteract  the 
bigotry  of  provincial  feelings.  A  man,  then,  is  not 
necessarily  presumptuous  in  thinking  himself  free  from 
local  biases.  In  truth,  slavery  never  presents  itself  to 
me  as  belonging  to  one  or  another  part  of  the  country. 
Tt  does  not  come  to  me  in  its  foreign  relations.  T  regard 
it  simply  and  nakedly  in  itself,  and  on  this  account  feel 
that  I  have  a  right  to  discuss  it. 

May  I  be  allowed  one  more  preliminary  remark  ?  The 
subject  of  slavery  is  separated  in  my  mind  not  only  from 
local  considerations,  but  from  all  thought  of  the  indi- 
viduals by  whom  it  is  sustained.  I  speak  against  this  in- 
stitution freely,  earnestly,  some  may  think,  vehemently  ; 


238  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

but  I  have  no  thought  of  attaching  the  same  reproach  to 
all  who  uphold  It ;  and  this  I  say,  not  to  propitiate  the 
slave-holder,  who  cannot  easily  forgive  the  irreconcil- 
able enemy  of  his  wrong-doing,  but  to  meet  the  prepos- 
sessions of  not  a  few  among  ourselves,  who,  from  esteem 
towards  the  slave-holder,  repel  what  seems  to  them  to 
involve  an  assault  on  his  character.  T  do,  indeed,  use, 
and  cannot  but  use,  strong  language  against  slavery.  No 
greater  wrong,  no  grosser  insult  on  humanity  can  well  be 
conceived  ;  nor  can  it  be  softened  by  the  customary  plea 
of  the  slave-holder's  kindness.  The  first  and  most  es- 
sential exercise  of  love  towards  a  human  being  is,  to 
respect  his  rights.  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  kindness  to  a  hu- 
man being  whose  rights  we  habitually  trample  under  foot. 
"  Be  just  before  you  are  generous."  A  human  being 
is  not  to  be  loved  as  a  horse  or  a  dog,  but  as  a  being 
having  rights  ;  and  his  first  grand  right  is  that  of  free  ac- 
tion ;  the  right  to  use  and  expand  his  powers  ;  to  im- 
prove and  obey  his  higher  faculties  ;  to  seek  his  own 
and  others'  good  ;  to  better  his  lot ;  to  make  himself  a 
home  ;  to  enjoy  inviolate  the  relations  of  husband  and 
parent  ;  to  live  the  life  of  a  man.  An  institution  deny- 
ing to  a  being  this  right,  and  virtually  all  rights,  which 
degrades  him  into  a  chattel,  and  puts  him  beneath  the 
level  of  his  race,  is  more  shocking  to  a  calm,  enlightened 
philanthropy  than  most  of  the  atrocities  which  we  shud- 
der at  in  history  ;  and  this  for  a  plain  reason.  These 
atrocities,  such  as  the  burning  of  heretics,  and  the  im- 
molation of  the  Indian  woman  on  the  funeral  pile  of  her 
husband,  have  generally  some  foundation  In  ideas  of  duty 
and  religion.  The  inquisitor  murders  to  do  God  ser- 
vice ;  and  the  Hindoo  widow  is  often  fortified  against 
the  flames  by  motives  of  inviolable  constancy  and  gener- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  239 

ous  self-sacrifice.  The  Indian  in  our  wilderness,  when 
he  tortures  his  captives,  thinks  of  making  an  offering,  of 
making  compensation,  to  his  own  tortured  friends.  But 
in  slavery,  man  seizes  his  brother,  subjects  him  to  brute 
force,  robs  him  of  all  his  rights,  for  purely  selfish  ends, 
—  as  selfishly  as  the  robber  fastens  on  his  prey.  No 
generous  affections,  no  ideas  of  religion  and  self-sacrifice 
throw  a  gleam  of  light  over  its  horrors.  As  such  I  must 
peak  of  slavery,  when  regarded  in  its  own  nature,  and 
especially  when  regarded  in  its  origin.  But  when  I  look 
on  a  community  among  whom  this  evil  exists,  but  who 
did  not  originate  it  ;  who  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  it ; 
who  connect  it  with  parents  and  friends  ;  who  see  it  in- 
timately entwined  with  the  whole  system  of  domestic, 
social,  industrial,  and  political  life  ;  who  are  blinded  by 
long  habit  to  its  evils  and  abuses  ;  and  who  are  alarmed 
by  the  possible  evils  of  the  mighty  change  involved  in  its 
abolition  ;  I  shrink  from  passing  on  such  a  community 
the  sentence  which  is  due  to  the  guilty  institution.  All 
history  furnishes  instances  of  vast  wrongs  inflicted,  of 
cruel  institutions  upheld,  by  nations  or  individuals  who  in 
other  relations  manifest  respect  for  duty.  That  slavery 
has  a  blighting  moral  influence,  where  it  exists,  is,  in- 
deed, unquestionable  ;  but  in  that  bad  atmosphere  so 
much  that  is  good  and  pure  may  and  does  grow  up  as  to 
forbid  us  to  deny  esteem  and  respect  to  a  man  simply 
because  he  is  a  slave-holder.  I  offer  these  remarks  be- 
cause I  wish  that  the  subject  may  be  approached  with- 
out the  association  of  it  with  individuals,  parties,  or  lo- 
cal divisions,  which  blind  the  mind  to  the  truth. 

I  now  return  to  the  Executive  document  with  which  I 
began.  T  am  first  to  consider  its  doctrines,  to  show  their 
moral  unsoundness  and  inhumanity  ;  and  then  I  shall  con- 


240  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

sider  the  bearing  of  these  doctrines  on  the  Free  States 
in  general,  and  the  interest  which  the  Free  States  have 
at  this  critical  moment  in  the  subject  of  slavery.  Thus 
my  work  divides  itself  into  two  parts,  the  first  of  which 
is  now  offered  to  the  public. 

In  regard  to  the  reasonings  and  doctrines  of  the  docu- 
ment, it  is  a  happy  circumstance,  that  they  come  within 
the  comprehension  of  the  mass  of  the  people.  The 
case  of  the  Creole  is  a  simple  one,  which  requires  no 
extensive  legal  study  to  be  understood.  A  man  who  has 
had  little  connexion  with  public  affairs  is  as  able  to  de- 
cide on  it  as  the  bulk  of  politicians.  The  elements  of 
the  case  are  so  few,  and  the  principles  on  which  its  de- 
termination rests  are  so  obvious,  that  nothing  but  a  sound 
moral  judgment  is  necessary  to  the  discussion.  Nothing 
can  darken  it  but  legal  subtlety.  None  can  easily  doubt 
it,  but  those  who  surrender  conscience  and  reason  to 
arbitrary  rules. 

The  question  between  the  American  and  English 
governments  turns  mainly  on  one  point.  The  English 
government  does  not  recognize  within  its  bounds  any 
property  in  man.  It  maintains  that  slavery  rests  wholly 
on  local,  municipal  legislation  ;  that  it  is  an  institution  not 
sustained  and  enforced  by  the  law  of  nature,  and,  still 
more,  that  it  is  repugnant  to  this  law  ;  and  that,  of  course, 
no  man  who  enters  the  territory  or  is  placed  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  England  can  be  regarded  as  a  slave,  but 
must  be  treated  as  free.  The  law  creating  slavery,  it  is 
maintained,  has  and  can  have  no  force  beyond  the  state 
which  creates  It.  No  other  nation  can  be  bound  by  it. 
"Whatever  validity  this  ordinance,  which  deprives  a  man 
of  all  his  rights,  may  have  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
community  in  which  it  had  its  birth,  it  can  have  no  va- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  241 

lidity  anywhere  else.      This  is   the  principle   on   which 
the  English  government  founds  itself. 

This  principle  is  so  plain  that  it  has  been  established 
and  is  acted  upon  among  ourselves,  and  in  the  neigh- 
bouring British  provinces.  When  a  slave  is  brought  by 
his  master  into  Massachusetts,  he  is  pronounced  free, 
on  the  ground,  that  the  law  of  slavery  has  no  force  be- 
yond the  State  which  ordains  it,  and  that  the  right  of 
every  man  to  liberty  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  the  Commonwealth.  A  slave  flying  from 
his  master  to  this  Commonwealth  is,  indeed,  restored, 
but  not  on  account  of  the  validity  of  the  legislation  of  the 
South  on  this  point,  but  solely  on  the  ground  of  a  posi- 
tive provision  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ; 
and  he  is  delivered,  not  as  a  slave,  but  as  a  "person 
held  to  service  by  law  in  another  State."  We  should 
not  think,  for  a  moment,  of  restoring  a  slave  flying  to  us 
from  Cuba  or  Turkey.  We  recognize  no  right  of  a 
foreign  master  on  this  soil.  The  moment  he  brings  his 
slave  here  his  claim  vanishes  into  air  ;  and  this  takes 
place  because  we  recognize  freedom  as  the  right  of  every 
human  being. 

By  the  provision  of  the  Constitution,  as  we  have  said, 
ihe  fugitive  slave  from  the  South  is  restored  by  us,  or, 
at  least,  his  master's  claim  is  not  annulled.  But  we  have 
proof  at  our  door  that  this  exception  rests  on  positive, 
not  natural  law.  Suppose  the  fugitive  to  pass  through 
our  territory  undiscovered,  and  to  reach  the  soil  of 
Canada.  The  moment  he  touches  it  he  is  free.  The 
master  finds  there  an  equal  in  his  slave.  The  British 
authority  extends  the  same  protection  over  both.  Ac- 
cordingly, a  colony  of  fugitive  slaves  is  growing  up  se- 
curely, beyond  our  border,  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  the 

VOL.  VI.  21 


242  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

rights  of  British  subjects.  And  this  good  work  has  been 
going  on  for  years,  without  any  complaint  against  Eng- 
land as  violating  national  law,  and  without  any  claim  for 
compensation.  These  are  plain  facts.  We  ourselves 
construe  the  law  of  nature  and  nations  as  England  does. 
But  the  question  is  not  to  be  settled  on  the  narrow 
ground  of  precedent  alone.  Let  us  view  it  in  the  light 
of  eternal,  universal  truth.  A  grand  principle  is  in- 
volved in  the  case,  or  rather  lies  at  its  very  foundation, 
and  to  this  I  ask  particular  attention.  (  This  principle  is, 
that  a  man,  as  a  man,  has  rights,  has  claims  on  his  race, 
which  are  in  no  degree  touched  or  impaired  on  account 
of  the  manner  in  which  he  may  be  regarded  or  treated 
by  a  particular  clan,  tribe,  or  nation  of  his  fellow-crea- 
tures. A  man,  by  his  very  nature,  as  an  intelligent, 
moral  creature  of  God,  has  claims  to  aid  and  kind  regard 
from  all  other  men.  There  is  a  grand  law  of  humanity 
more  comprehensive  than  all  others,  and  under  which 
every  man  should  find  shelter.  He  has  not  only  a  right, 
but  is  bound,  to  use  freely  and  improve  the  powers 
which  God  has  given  him  ;  and  other  men,  instead  of 
obstructing,  are  bound  to  assist  their  development  and 
exertion.  These  claims  a  man  does  not  derive  from  the 
family  or  tribe  in  which  he  began  his  being.  They  are 
not  the  growth  of  a  particular  soil  ;  they  are  not  ripened 
under  a  peculiar  sky  ;  they  are  not  written  on  a  particu- 
lar complexion  ;  they  belong  to  human  nature.  The 
ground  on  which  one  man  asserts  them  all  men  stand  on, 
nor  can  they  be  denied  to  one  without  being  denied  to 
all.  We  have  here  a  common  interest.  We  must  all 
stand  or  fall  together.  We  all  have  claims  on  our  race, 
claims  of  kindness  and  justice,  claims  grounded  on  our 
relation  to  our  common  Father,  and  on  the  inheritance 
of  a  common  nature. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  243 

Because  a  number  of  men  invade  the  rights  of  a 
fellow-creature,  and  pronounce  him  destitute  of  rights, 
his  claims  are  not  a  whit  touched  by  this.  He  is  as  much 
a  man  as  before.  Not  a  single  gift  of  God  on  which  his 
rights  rest  is  taken  away.  His  relations  to  the  rest  of 
his  race  are  in  no  measure  affected.  He  is  as  truly 
their  brother  as  if  his  tribe  had  not  pronounced  him  a 
brute.  If,  indeed,  any  change  takes  place,  his  claims 
are  enhanced,  on  the  ground  that  the  suffering  and  in- 
jured are  entitled  to  peculiar  regard.  If  any  rights 
should  be  singularly  sacred  in  our  sight,  they  are  those 
which  are  denied  and  trodden  in  the  dust. 

It  seems  to  be  thought  by  some  that  a  man  derives  all 
his  rights  from  the  nation  to  which  he  belongs.  They 
are  gifts  of  the  state,  and  the  state  may  take  them  away, 
if  it  will.  A  man,  it  is  thought,  has  claims  on  other 
men,  not  as  a  man,  but  as  an  Englishman,  an  American, 
or  a  subject  of  some  other  state.  He  must  produce  his 
parchment  of  citizenship,  before  he  binds  other  men  to 
protect  him,  to  respect  his  free  agency,  to  leave  him 
the  use  of  his  powers  according  to  his  own  will.  Local, 
municipal  law  is  thus  made  the  fountain  and  measure 
of  rights.  The  stranger  must  tell  us  where  he  was  born, 
Vvhat  privileges  he  enjoyed  at  home,  or  no  tie  links  us 
to  one  another. 

In  conformity  to  these  views,  it  is  thought,  that,  when 
one  community  declares  a  man  to  be  a  slave,  other  com- 
munities must  respect  this  decree  ;  that  the  duties  of  a 
foreign  nation  to  an  individual  are  to  be  determined  by 
a  brand  set  on  him  on  his  own  shores  ;  that  his  relations 
to  the  whole  race  may  be  affected  by  the  local  act  of  a 
community,  no  matter  how  small  or  how  unjust. 

This  is   a  terrible  doctrine.     It  strikes  a   blow  at  all 


244  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

the  rights  of  human  nature.  It  enables  the  political 
body  to  which  we  belong,  no  matter  how  wicked  or 
weak,  to  make  each  of  us  an  outcast  from  his  race.  It 
makes  a  man  nothing  in  himself.  As  a  man,  lie  has  no 
significance.  He  is  sacred  only  as  far  as  some  state  has 
taken  him  under  its  care.  Stripped  of  his  nationality, 
he  is  at  the  mercy  of  all  who  may  incline  to  lay  hold  on 
him.  He  may  be  seized,  imprisoned,  sent  to  work  in 
galleys  or  mines,  unless  some  foreign  state  spreads  its 
shield  over  him  as  one  of  its  citizens. 

This  doctrine  is  as  false  as  it  is  terrible.  Man  is  not 
the  mere  creature  of  the  state.  Man  is  older  than  na- 
tions, and  he  is  to  survive  nations.  There  is  a  law  of 
humanity  more  primitive  and  divine  than  the  law  of  the 
land.  He  has  higher  claims  than  those  of  a  citizen. 
He  has  rights  which  date  before  all  charters  and  com- 
munities ;  not  conventional,  not  repealable,  but  as  eter- 
nal as  the  powers  and  laws  of  his  being. 

This  annihilation  of  the  individual  by  merging  him  in 
the  state  lies  at  the  foundation  of  despotism.  The 
nation  is  too  often  the  grave  of  the  man.  This  is  the 
more  monstrous,  because  the  very  end  of  the  state,  of 
the  organization  of  the  nation,  is,  to  secure  the  individual 
in  all  his  rights,  and  especially  to  secure  the  rights  of  the 
weak.  Here  is  the  fundamental  idea  of  political  asso- 
ciation. In  an  unorganized  society,  with  no  legislation, 
no  tribunal,  no  empire,  riglits  have  no  security.  Force 
predominates  over  right.  This  is  the  grand  evil  of 
what  is  called  the  state  of  nature.  To  repress  this,  to 
give  right  the  ascendancy  over  force,  this  is  the  grand 
idea  and  end  of  government,  of  country,  of  political  con- 
stitutions. And  yet  we  are  taught  that  it  depends  on 
the  law  of  a  man's  country,  whetlier  he  shall  have  rights, 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  245 

and  whether  other  states  shall  regard  him  as  a  man. 
When  cast  on  a  foreign  shore,  his  country,  and  not  his 
humanity,  is  to  be  inquired  into,  and  the  treatment  he  re- 
ceives is  to  be  proportioned  to  what  he  meets  at  home. 

Men  worship  power,  worship  great  organizations,  and 
overlook  the  individual  ;  and  few  things  have  depraved 
the  moral  sentiment  of  men  more,  or  brought  greater 
woes  on  the  race.  The  state,  or  the  ruler  in  whom  the 
state  is  embodied,  continues  to  be  worshipped,  notwith- 
standing the  commission  of  crimes  which  would  inspire 
horror  in  the  private  man.  How  insignificant  are  the 
robberies,  murders,  piracies,  which  the  law  makes  capi- 
tal, in  comparison  with  an  unjust  or  unnecessary  war, 
dooming  thousands,  perhaps  millions,  of  the  innocent  to 
the  most  torturing  forms  of  death,  or  with  the  law  of  an 
autocrat  or  of  a  public  body,  depriving  millions  of  all  the 
rights  of  men  !  But  these,  because  the  acts  of  the  state, 
escape  the  execrations  of  the  world. 

In  consequence  of  this  worship  of  governments  it  is 
thought  that  their  relations  to  one  another  are  alone  im- 
portant. A  government  is  too  great  to  look  at  a  stran- 
ger, except  as  he  is  incorporated  with  some  state.  It 
can  have  nothing  to  do  but  with  political  organizations 
like  itself.  But  the  humble  stranger  has  a  claim  on  it 
as  sacred  as  another  state.  Standing  alone,  he  yet  has 
rights,  and  to  violate  them  is  as  criminal  as  to  violate 
stipulations  with  a  foreign  power.  In  one  view  it  is 
baser.  It  is  as  true  of  governments  as  of  individuals, 
that  it  is  base  and  unmanly  to  trample  on  the  weak. 
He  who  invades  the  strong  shows  a  courage  which  does 
something  to  redeem  his  violence  ;  but  to  tread  on  the 
neck  of  a  helpless,  friendless  fellow-creature  is  to  add 
meanness  to  wrong. 
21* 


246  THE  BUIY   OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

If  the  doctrine  be  true,  that  the  character  rmpressed 
on  a  man  at  home  follows  him  abroad,  and  that  he  is  to 
be  regarded,  not  as  a  man,  but  as  the  local  laws  which 
he  has  left  regard  him,  why  shall  not  this  apply  to  the 
peculiar  advantages  as  well  as  disadvantages  which  a 
man  enjoys  in  his  own  land  ?  Why  shall  not  he  whom 
the  laws  invest  with  a  right  to  universal  homage  at  home 
receive  the  same  tribute  abroad  ?  Why  shall  not  he 
whose  rank  exempts  him  from  the  ordinary  restraints 
of  law  on  his  own  shores  claim  the  same  lawlessness 
elsewhere  ?  Abroad  these  distinctions  avail  him  nothing. 
The  local  law  which  makes  him  a  kind  of  deity  deserts 
him  the  moment  he  takes  a  step  beyond  his  country's 
borders  ;  and  why  shall  the  disadvantages,  the  terrible 
wrongs,  which  that  law  inflicts,  follow  the  poor  sufferer 
to  the  end  of  the  earth  ? 

I  repeat  it,  for  the  truth  deserves  reiteration,  that  all 
nations  are  bound  to  respect  the  rights  of  every  human 
being.  This  is  God's  law^,  as  old  as  the  world.  No  lo- 
cal law  can  touch  it.  No  ordinance  of  a  particular  state, 
degrading  a  set  of  men  to  chattels,  can  absolve  all  na- 
tions from  the  obligation  of  regarding  the  injured  beings 
as  men,  or  bind  them  to  send  back  the  injured  to  their 
chains.  The  character  of  a  slave,  attached  to  a  man  by 
a  local  government,  is  not  and  cannot  be  incorporated 
into  his  nature.  It  does  not  cling  to  him,  go  where  he 
will.  The  scar  of  slavery  on  his  back  does  not  reach 
bis  soul.  The  arbitrary  relation  between  him  and  his 
master  cannot  suspend  the  primitive,  indestructible  rela- 
tion by  which  God  binds  him  to  his  kind. 

The  idea,  that  a  particular  state  may  fix  enduringly 
this  stigma  on  a  human  being,  and  can  bind  the  most 
just  and  generous  men  to  respect  it,  should  be  rejected 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  247 

with  scorn  and  indignation.  It  reminds  us  of  those  hor- 
rible fictions  in  which  some  demon  is  described  as 
stamping  an  indelible  mark  of  hell  on  his  helpless  vic- 
tims. It  was  the  horrible  peculiarity  of  the  world  in  the 
reign  of  Tiberius,  that  it  had  become  one  vast  prison. 
The  unhappy  man  on  whom  the  blighting  suspicion  of 
the  tyrant  had  fallen  could  find  no  shelter  or  escape 
through  the  whole  civilized  regions  of  the  globe.  Every- 
where his  sentence  followed  him  like  fate.  And  can 
the  law  of  a  despot,  or  of  a  chamber  of  despots,  extend 
now  the  same  fearful  doom  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ? 
Can  a  little  State  at  the  South  spread  its  web  of  cruel, 
wrongful  legislation  over  both  continents  ^  Do  all  com- 
munities become  spellbound  by  a  law  in  a  single  coun- 
try creating  slavery  ?  Must  they  become  the  slave's 
jailers  ?  Must  they  be  less  merciful  than  the  storm 
which  drives  oft  the  bondman  from  the  detested  shore 
of  servitude  and  casts  him  on  the  soil  of  freedom  ?  Must 
even  that  soil  become  tainted  by  an  ordinance  passed 
perhaps  in  another  hemisphere  ?  Has  oppression  this 
terrible  omnipresence  ?  Must  the  whole  earth  register 
the  slave-holder's  decree  ?  Then  the  earth  is  blighted 
indeed.  Then,  as  some  ancient  sects  taught,  it  is  truly 
the  empire  of  the  Principle  of  Evil,  of  the  Power  of 
Darkness.  Then  God  is  dethroned  here  ;  for  where 
injustice  and  oppression  are  omnipotent  God  has  no 
empire. 

I  have  thus  stated  the  great  principle  on  which  the 
English  authorities  acted  in  the  case  of  the  Creole,  and 
on  which  all  nations  are  bound  to  act.  Slavery  is  the 
creature  of  a  local  law,  having  power  not  a  handbreadth 
beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  country  which  ordains  it. 
Other  nations  know  nothing  of  it,  are   bound  to  pay  it 


248  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

no  heed.  I  might  add  that  other  nations  are  bound  to 
tolerate  it  within  the  bounds  of  a  particular  state  only  on 
the  grounds  on  which  they  suffer  a  particular  state  to 
estabhsh  bloody  superstitions,  to  use  the  rack  in  juris- 
prudence, or  to  practise  other  enormities.  They  might 
much  more  justifiably  put  down  slavery  where  it  ex- 
ists than  enforce  a  foreign  slave-code  within  their  own 
bounds.  Such  is  the  impregnable  principle  which  w'e  of 
the  Free  States  should  recognize  and  earnestly  sustain.* 
This  principle  our  government  has  not  explicitly  de- 
nied in  its  letter  to  our  minister  in  London.  The  letter 
is  chiefly  employed  in  dilating  on  various  particular  cir- 
cumstances which,  it  is  said,  entitled  the  Creole  to  as- 
sistance from  the  British  authorities  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  voyage  with  her  original  freight  and  passengers. 
The  strength  of  the  document  lies  altogether  in  the  skilful 
manner  in  which  these  circumstances  are  put  together. 
I  shall  therefore  proceed  to  consider  them  with  some 
minuteness.  They  are  briefly  these.  The  vessel  was 
engaged  in  a  voyage  "  perfectly  lawful."  She  was 
taken  to  a  British  port,  "not  voluntarily,  by  those  who 
had  the  lawful  authority  over  her,"  but  forcibly  and  vio- 
lently, "against  the  master's  will,"  without  any  agency 
or  solicitation  on  the  part  of  the  great  majority  of  the 
slaves,  and,  indeed,  solely  by  the  few  "  mutineers  "  who 
had  gained  possession  of  her  by  violence  and  bloodshed. 
The  slaves  were  "  still  on  board  "  the  American  vessel. 
They  had  not  become  "  incorporated  with  the  English 
population  "  ;  and  from  these  facts  it  is  argued  that  they 
had  not  changed  their  original  character,  that  the  vcsseJ 
containing  them  ought  to  have  been  regarded  as  "  still 
on  her  voyage,"  and  should  have  been  aided  to  resume 

*  See  Note  A. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  249 

it,  according  to  that  law  of  comity  and  hospitality  by 
which  nations  are  bound  to  aid  one  another's  vessels  in 
distress. 

It  is  encouraging  to  see  in  this  reasoning  of  the  letter 
a  latent  acknowledgment,  that,  had  the  vessel  been  car- 
ried with  the  slaves  into  the  British  port  by  the  free  will 
of  the  captain,  the  slaves  would  have  been  entitled  to 
liberty.  The  force  and  crime  involved  in  the  transac- 
tion form  the  strength  of  the  case  as  stated  by  ourselves. 
The  whole  tone  of  the  communication  undesignedly  re- 
cognizes important  rights  in  a  foreign  state  in  regard 
to  slaves  carried  voluntarily  to  their  shores  ;  and  by  this 
concession  it  virtually  abandons  the  whole  ground. 

But  let  us  look  at  the  circumstances  which,  it  is  said, 
bound  the  British  authorities  to  assist  the  captain  in  send- 
ing back  the  slaves  to  their  chains  ;  and  one  general  re- 
mark immediately  occurs.  These  circumstances  do  not 
touch,  in  the  slightest  degree,  the  great  principle  on 
which  the  authorities  were  bound  by  British  and  natural 
law  to  act.  This  principle,  as  we  have  stated,  is,  that 
a  nation  is  bound  by  the  law  of  nature  to  respect  the 
rights  of  every  human  being,  that  every  man  within  its 
jurisdiction  is  entitled  to  its  protection  as  long  as  he 
obeys  its  laws,  that  the  private  individual  may  appeal  to 
the  broad  law  of  humanity  and  claim  hospitality  as  truly 
as  a  state. 

Now  how  did  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  Creole 
bear  on  this  fundamental  view  of  the  case  ?  Did  the 
manner  in  which  the  slaves  of  the  Creole  were  carried 
to  Nassau  in  any  measure  affect  their  character  as  men  ? 
Did  they  cease  to  be  men,  because  the  ship  was  seized 
by  violence,  the  captain  imprisoned,  and  the  vessel  turned 
from  its  original  destination  ^     Did   the  shifting  of  the 


250  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

vessel's  course  by  a  few  points  of  the  compass,  or  did 
the  government  of  the  helm  by  a  ''mutineer,"  transmute 
a  hundred  or  more  men  into  chattels  ?  To  the  eye  of 
the  British  officer,  the  slaves  looked  precisely  as  they 
would  have  done,  had  they  been  brought  to  the  island  by 
any  other  means.  He  could  see  nothing  but  human 
beings  ;  and  no  circumstances,  leaving  this  character  on 
them,  could  have  authorized  him  to  deny  them  human 
rights.  It  mattered  nothing  to  him  how  they  came  to 
the  island  ;  for  this  did  not  touch  at  all  the  ground  of 
their  claim  to  protection. 

A  case,  indeed,  is  imagined  in  the  document,  in  which 
it  is  said  that  the  manner  of  transportation  of  slaves  to  a 
foreign  port  must  determine  the  character  in  which  they 
shall  be  viewed.  "  Suppose  an  American  vessel  with 
slaves  lawfully  on  board  were  to  be  captured  by  a  British 
cruiser,  as  belonging  to  some  belligerent,  while  the  Uni- 
ted States  were  at  peace  ;  suppose  such  prize  carried 
into  England,  and  the  neutrality  of  the  vessel  fully  made 
out  in  the  proceedings  in  Admiralty,  and  a  restoration 
consequently  decreed  ;  in  such  case  must  not  the  slaves 
be  restored  exactly  in  the  condition  in  which  they  were 
when  the  capture  was  made  ?  Would  any  one  contend 
that  the  fact  of  their  having  been  carried  into  England 
by  force  set  them  free  ?  "  I  reply,  undoubtedly  they 
would  be  free  the  moment  they  should  enter  English 
jurisdiction.  A  writ  of  habeas  corpus  could  and  would 
and  must  be  granted  them,  if  demanded  by  themselves 
or  their  friends,  and  no  court  would  dare  to  remit  them 
to  their  chains  ;  and  this  is  not  only  English  law,  but  in 
the  spirit  of  universal  law.  In  this  case,  however,  com- 
pensation would  undoubtedly  be  made  by  the  captors  for 
the  slaves,  not  on  the  ground  of  any  claim  in  the  slave- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  251 

holder,  but  because  of  the  original  wrong  by  the  captors, 
and  of  their  consequent  obligation  to  replace  the  vessel, 
as  much  as  possible,  in  the  condition  in  which  she  was 
found  at  the  moment  of  being  seized  on  the  open  ocean, 
where  she  was  captured  on  groundless  suspicion,  where 
she  had  a  right  to  prosecute  her  voyage  without  obstruc- 
tion, and  whence  she  ought  not  to  have  been  brought 
by  the  capturing  state  within  its  jurisdiction  and  made 
subject  to  its  laws. 

Let  us  now  consider  particularly  the  circumstances  on 
which  the  United  States  maintain  that  the  British  authori- 
ties were  bound  to  replace  the  slaves  under  the  master 
of  the  Creole,  and  violated  their  duty  in  setting  them 
free. 

It  is  insisted,  first,  that  ''  the  Creole  was  passing  from 
one  port  to  another  in  a  voyage  perfectly  lawful.''''  We 
cannot  but  lament,  that,  to  sustain  this  point  of  the  law- 
fulness of  the  voyage,  it  is  affirmed  that  "  slaves  are  re- 
cognized as  property  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  in  those  States  in  which  slavery  exists."  Were 
this  true,  it  is  one  of  those  truths  which  respect  for  our 
country  should  prevent  our  intruding  on  the  notice  of 
•strangers.  A  child  should  throw  a  mantle  over  the 
nakedness  of  his  parent.  But  the  language  seems  to  me 
stronger  than  the  truth.  The  Constitution  was  intended 
not  to  interfere  with  the  laws  of  property  in  the  States 
where  slaves  had  been  held.  But  the  recognhion  of  a 
moral  right  in  the  slave-holder  is  most  carefully  avoided 
in  that  instrument.  Slaves  are  three  times  referred  to, 
but  always  as  persons,  not  as  property.  The  Free  States 
are,  indeed,  bound  to  deliver  up  fugitive  slaves  ;  but  these 
are  to  be  surrendered,  not  as  slaves,  but  as  ''persons 
held  to  service."     The  clause  applies  as  much  to  fugi- 


252  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

tive  apprentices  from  the  North  as  to  fugitive  slaves 
from  the  South.  The  history  of  this  clause  is  singular. 
In  tlie  first  draught  of  the  Constitution  it  stood  thus  : 
*'  No  person,  legally  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one 
Slate,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of 
regulations  subsisting  therein,  be  discharged  from  such 
service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up,"  &c.  Mr. 
Madison  tells  us  that  "  the  term  '  legally  '  was  struck 
out  ;  and  the  words,  '  under  the  laws  thereof,'  in- 
serted after  the  word  '  State,'  in  compliance  with  the 
wish  of  some  who  thought  the  term  legal  equivo- 
cal, and  favoring  the  idea  that  slavery  was  legal  in 
a  moral  view.''''*  It  ought  also  to  be  added,  that, 
in  the  debate  in  the  Convention  on  that  clause  of  the 
Constitution  which  conferred  power  on  Congress  to  abol- 
ish the  importation  of  slaves  in  ISOS,  "  Mr.  Madison 
thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in  the  Constitution  the  idea 
that  there  could  be  property  in  men,"  f  INIost  mem- 
orable testimony  to  tlie  truth  from  this  greatest  constitu- 
tional authority  !  With  the  knowledge  of  these  facts, 
our  government  had  no  apology  for  holding  up  the  great 
national  charter  as  recognizing  property  in  man.  The 
phraseology  and  history  of  the  Constitution  afford  us 
some  shelter,  however  insufficient,  from  the  moral  con- 
demnation of  the  world  ;  and  we  should  not  gratuitously 
cast  it  away. 

Whilst,  however,  we  censure  this  clause  in  the  Ex- 
ecutive document,  we  rejoice  that  on  one  point  it  is  ex- 
plicit. It  affirms  that  "slaves  are  recognized  as  proper- 
ty by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  in  those 
States  in  lohich  slavery  exists.''''  Here  we  have  the 
limit   precisely    defined   within  which   the   Constitution 

•  Madison  Papers,  p.  1589.  t  Ibid.  p.  1429,  20. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  253 

spreads  its  shield  over  slavery.  These  limits  are,  *'  the 
States  in  which  slavery  exists.'^  Beyond  these  it  re- 
cognizes no  property  in  man,  and,  of  course,  beyond 
these  it  cannot  take  this  property  under  its  protection. 
The  moment  the  slave  leaves  the  States  within  which 
slavery  exists,  the  Constitution  knows  nothing  of  him  as 
property.  Of  consequence,  the  national  government  has 
no  right  to  touch  the  case  of  the  Creole.  As  soon  as 
that  vessel  passed  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State 
where  she  received  her  passengers,  the  slaves  ceased  to 
be  property,  in  the  eye  of  the  Constitution.  The  na- 
tional authorities  were  no  longer  bound  to  interfere  with 
and  to  claim  them  as  such.  The  nation's  force  was  no 
longer  pledged  to  subject  them  to  their  masters.  Its 
relation  to  them  had  wholly  ceased.  On  this  point  we 
qre  bound  to  adopt  the  strictest  construction  of  the  in- 
strument. The  Free  States  should  not  suffer  them- 
selves to  be  carried  a  hair's  breadth  beyond  the  line 
within  which  they  are  pledged  to  the  dishonorable  office 
of  protecting  slavery. 

But,  leaving  this  clause,  I  return  to  the  first  consider- 
ation adduced  to  substantiate  the  claim  of  the  Creole  to 
the  assistance  of  the  British  authorities.  The  voyage, 
we  are  told,  was  "  perfectly  lawful."  Be  it  so.  But 
this  circumstance,  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
Free  States,  involves  no  obligation  of  another  commu- 
nity to  enforce  slavery,  or  to  withhold  from  the  slave 
the  rights  of  a  man.  Suppose  that  the  Creole  had 
sailed  to  Massachusetts  with  her  slaves.  The  voyage 
would  have  been  "lawful"  ;  but  on  entering  the  port 
of  Boston  her  slaves  would  have  been  pronounced  free. 
The  "  right  of  property  "  in  them  conferred  by  a  Slave 
State  would  have  ceased.    The  lawfulness  of  the  voyage, 

VOL.   VI.  22 


£54^  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

then,  gives  the  slave-holder  no  claim  on  another  govern 
ment  into  the  ports  of  which  his  slave  may  be  carried. 

Again,  what  is  meant  by  the  "  perfect  lawfulness  " 
of  the  voyage  ?  Does  it  mean  that  the  Creole  shipped 
the  slaves  under  the  law  of  nature  or  the  law  of  Great 
Britain  ?  Certainly  not  ;  but  solely  under  the  law  of 
America  ;  so  that  the  old  question  recurs,  Whether  a 
local,  municipal  law,  authorizing  an  American  vessel  to 
convey  slaves,  binds  all  nations,  to  whose  territory  these 
unhappy  persons  may  be  carried,  to  regard  them  as 
properly,  to  treat  them  as  the  Parias  of  the  human  race. 
This  is  the  simple  question,  and  one  not  hard  of  solu- 
tion. 

"  The  voyage  was  perfectly  lawful,"  we  are  told. 
So  would  be  the  voyage  of  a  Turkish  ship  freighted  with 
Christian  slaves  from  Constantinople.  Suppose  such  a 
vessel  driven  by  storms  or  carried  by  force  into  a  Chris- 
tian port.  Would  any  nation  in  Europe,  or  would 
America,  feel  itself  bound  to  assist  the  Turkish  slaver, 
to  replace  the  chains  on  Christian  captives  whom  the 
elements  or  their  own  courage  had  set  free,  to  sacrifice 
to  the  comity  and  hospitality  and  usages  of  nations  the 
law  of  humanity  and  Christian  brotherhood  ? 

'*  The  voyage,"  we  are  told,  "  was  perfectly  lawful." 
Suppose  now  that  a  slave-holding  country  should  pass  a 
law  ordaining  and  describing  a  chain  as  a  badge  of  bon- 
dage, and  authorizing  the  owner  to  carry  about  his  slave 
fastened  to  himself  by  this  sign  of  property.  Suppose 
the  master  to  go  with  slave  and  chain  to  a  foreign 
country.  His  journey  would  be  "  lawful  "  ;  but  would 
the  foreign  government  be  bound  to  respect  this  ordi- 
nance of  the  distant  state  .''  Would  the  authorized  chain 
estabhsh  property  in  the  slave  over  the  whole  earth  > 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  255 

We  know  it  would  not  ;  and  why  should  the  authorized 
vessel  impose  a  more  real  obligation  ? 

It  seems  to  be  suj3posed  by  some  that  there  is  a  pe- 
culiar sacredness  in  a  vessel,,  which  exempts  it  from  all 
control  in  the  ports  of  other  nations.  A  vessel  is  some- 
times said  to  be  "  an  extension  of  the  territory "  to 
which  it  belongs.  The  nation,  we  are  told,  is  present 
in  the  vessel,  and  its  honor  and  rights  are  involved  in 
the  treatment  which  its  flag  leceives  abroad.  These 
ideas  are  in  the  main  true  in  regard  to  ships  on  the  high 
seas.  The  sea  is  the  exclusive  property  of  no  nation. 
It  is  subject  to  none.  It  is  the  common  and  equal  prop- 
erty of  all.  No  state  has  jurisdiction  over  it.  No  slate 
can  write  its  laws  on  that  restless  surface.  A  ship  at 
sea  carries  with  her  and  represents  the  rights  of  her 
country,  rights  equal  to  those  which  any  other  enjoys. 
The  slightest  application  of  the  laws  of  another  nation 
to  her  is  to  be  resisted.  She  is  subjected  to  no  law  but 
that  of  her  own  country,  and  to  the  law  of  nations, 
which  presses  equally  on  all  states.  She  may  thus  be 
called,  with  no  violence  to  language,  an  extension  of  the 
territory  to  which  she  belongs.  But  suppose  her  to 
quit  the  open  sea  and  enter  a  port.  What  a  change  is 
produced  in  her  condition  !  At  sea  she  sustained  the 
same  relations  to  all  nations,  those  of  an  equal.  Now 
she  sustains  a  new  and  peculiar  relation  to  the  nation 
which  she  has  entered.  She  passes  at  once  under  its 
jui'isdiction.  She  is  subject  to  its  laws.  She  is  entered 
by  its  officers.  If  a  criminal  flies  to  her  for  shelter,  he 
may  be  pursued  and  apprehended.  If  her  own  men 
violate  the  laws  of  the  land,  they  may  be  seized  and 
punished.  The  nation  is  not  present  in  her.  She  has 
left  the   open  highway  of  the  ocean,  where  all  nations 


^56  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

are  equals,  and  entered  a  port  where  one  nation  alone  is 
clothed  with  authority.  What  matters  it  that  a  vessel  in 
the  harbour  of  Nassau  is  owned  in  America  ?  This  does 
not  change  her  locality.  She  has  contracted  new  duties 
and  obligations  by  being  placed  under  a  new  jurisdiction. 
Her  relations  differ  essentially  from  those  which  she  sus- 
tained at  home  or  on  the  open  sea.  These  remarks 
apply,  of  course,  to  merchant  vessels  alone.  A  ship  of 
war  is  "an  extension  of  the  territory"  to  which  she 
belongs,  not  only  when  she  is  on  the  ocean,  but  in  a 
foreign  port.  In  this  respect  she  resembles  an  army 
marching  by  consent  through  a  neutral  country.  Neither 
ship  of  war  nor  army  falls  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
foreign  states.  Merchant  vessels  resemble  individuals. 
Both  become  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  land  which  they 
enter. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  consider  the  next  circum- 
stance, on  which  much  stress  is  laid  to  substantiate  the 
claim  of  our  government.  "  The  vessel  was  taken  to  a 
British  port,  not  voluntarily,  by  those  who  had  tlie  lawful 
authority  over  her,  but  forcibly  and  violently,  against  the 
master's  will,  by  mutineers  and  murderers,"  &c. 

To  this  various  replies  are  contained  in  the  preceding 
remarks.  The  first  is,  that  the  local  laws  of  one  coun- 
try are  not  transported  to  another,  and  do  not  become 
of  force  there,  because  a  vessel  of  the  former  is  carried 
by  violence  into  the  ports  of  the  latter.  Another  is, 
that  a  vessel  entering  the  harbour  of  a  foreign  state, 
through  mutiny  or  violence,  is  not  on  this  account  ex- 
empted from  its  jurisdiction  or  laws.  She  may  not  set 
its  authorities  at  defiance  because  brought  within  its 
waters  against  her  own  will.  There  may,  indeed,  bo 
local  laws  intended  to  exclude  foreigners,  which  it  would 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES  257 

be  manifestly  unjust  and  inhuman  to  enforce  on  such  as 
may  be  driven  to  the  excluding  state  against  their  own 
consent.  But  as  to  the  laws  of  a  country  founded  on 
the  universal  principles  of  justice  and  humanity,  these 
are  binding  on  foreign  vessels  under  whatever  circum- 
stances they  may  be  brought  within  its  jurisdiction. 
There  is  still  another  view  of  this  subject,  which  I  have 
already  urged,  but  w^iich  is  so  important  as  to  deserve 
repetition.  The  right  of  the  slaves  of  the  Creole  to 
liberation  was  not  at  all  touched  by  the  mode  in  which 
they  were  brought  to  Nassau.  No  matter  how  they  got 
there,  whether  by  sea,  land,  or  air,  whether  by  help  of 
saint  or  sinner.  A  man's  right  to  freedom  is  derived 
from  none  of  these  accidents,  but  inheres  in  him  as  a 
man,  and  nothing  which  does  not  touch  his  humanity 
can  impair  it.  The  slaves  of  the  Creole  were  not  a  whit 
the  less  men  because  "mutiny"  had  changed  their  course 
on  the  ocean.  They  stood  up  in  the  port  of  Nassau 
with  all  the  attributes  of  men,  and  the  government  could 
not  without  wrong  have  denied  their  character  and  cor- 
responding claims. 

We  are  now  prepared  for  the  consideration  of  another 
circumstance  in  the  case  of  the  Creole  on  which  stress 
is  laid.  We  are  told  by  our  government  that  they  were 
"still  in  the  ship"  when  they  were  declared  free,  and 
on  this  account  their  American  character,  that  is,  the 
character  of  slavery,  adhered  to  them.  This  is  a  view 
of  the  case  more  fitted  perhaps  than  any  other  to  im- 
press the  inconsiderate.  The  slaves  had  not  changed 
their  position,  had  not  touched  the  shore.  The  vessel 
was  American.  They  trod  on  American  pknks  ;  they 
slept  within  American  walls.  They  of  course  belonged 
to  America,  and  were  to  be  viewed  only  in  their  Amer- 
22* 


258  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

ican  character.  To  this  reasoning  the  principles  already 
laid  down  furnish  an  easy  answer.  It  is  true  that  the 
slaves  were  in  an  American  ship  ;  but  there  is  another 
truth  still  more  pregnant  ;  they  were  also  in  another 
country,  where  American  law  has  no  power.  The  ves- 
sel had  not  carried  America  to  the  port  of  Nassau. 
The  slaves  had  changed  countries.  What  though  they 
were  there  in  an  American  ship  ?  They  were  therefore 
not  the  less  within  English  territory  and  English  jurisdic- 
tion. The  two  or  three  inches  of  plank  which  sepa- 
rated them  from  the  waves  had  no  miraculous  power  to 
prevent  them  from  being  where  they  were.  The  water 
which  embosomed  the  vessel  was  English.  The  air 
they  breathed  was  English.  The  laws  under  which  they 
had  passed  were  English.  One  would  think,  from  the 
reasoning  to  which  I  am  replying,  that  the  space  occu- 
pied by  a  vessel  in  a  foreign  port  is  separated  for  a  time 
from  the  country  to  which  it  formerly  belonged  ;  that  it 
takes  the  character  of  the  vessel,  and  falls  under  the 
laws  of  the  land  to  which  she  appertains  ;  that  the  au- 
thorities which  have  controlled  it  for  ages  must  not  enter 
it,  whilst  the  foreign  planks  are  floating  in  it,  to  repress 
crime  or  enforce  justice.  But  this  is  all  a  fiction.  The 
slaves,  whilst  in  the  ship,  were  in  a  foreign  country  as 
truly  as  if  they  had  plunged  into  the  waves  or  set  foot 
on  shore. 

We  will  now  consider  another  circumstance  to  which 
importance  is  attached  in  the  document  of  our  Execu- 
tive. We  are  told  that  "the  slaves  could  not  be  re- 
garded as  having  become  mixed  up  or  incorporated  with 
the  British  population,  or  as  having  changed  character 
at  all,  either  in  regard  to  country  or  personal  condition." 
To  this"  it  is  replied,  that  no  one  pretends  that  the  slaves 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  259 

had  become  Englishmen,  or  had  formed  a  special  rela- 
tion to  Great  Britain,  on  account  of  which  she  was  com- 
pelled to  liberate  them.  It  was  not  as  a  part  of  the 
British  population  that  they  were  declared  free.  Had 
the  authorities  ai  Nassau  taken  this  ground,  they  might 
have  been  open  to  the  complaints  of  our  government. 
The  slaves  were  pronounced  free,  not  because  of  any 
national  character  which  they  sustained,  but  because 
they  were  men,  and  because  Great  Britain  held  itself 
bound  to  respect  the  law  of  nature  with  regard  to  men. 
It  was  not  necessary  for  them  to  be  incorporated  with 
the  British  population  in  order  to  acquire  the  common 
rights  of  human  beings.  One  great  error  in  the  docu- 
ment is,  that  a  government  is  supposed  to  owe  nothing 
to  a  human  being  who  lands  on  its  shores,  any  farther 
than  his  nation  may  require.  It  is  thought  to  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  inquire  into  his  nationality  and  to 
fulfil  the  obligations  which  this  imposes.  He  has  no 
rights  to  set  up,  unless  his  own  government  stand  by 
him.  Thus  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  law  of 
nature  are  set  at  naught.  Thus  all  rights  are  resolved 
into  benefactions  of  the  state,  and  man  is  nothing,  unless 
incorporated,  mixed  up,  with  the  population  of  a  particu- 
lar country.  This  doctrine  is  too  monstrous  to  be  open- 
ly avowed,  but  it  lies  at  the  foundation  of  most  of  the 
reasonings  of  the  document.  The  man,  I  repeat  it,  is 
older  and  more  sacred  than  the  citizen.  The  slave  of 
the  Creole  had  no  other  name  to  take.  His  own  coun- 
try had  declared  him  not  to  be  a  citizen.  He  had  been 
scornfully  refused  a  place  among  the  American  people. 
He  was  only  a  Man  ;  and  was  that  a  low  title  on  which 
to  stand  up  among  men  ?  Nature  knows  no  higher  on 
earth.     English  law  knows  no  higher.     Shall  we  find 


260  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

fault  with  a  country,  because  an  outcast  man  landing  on 
its  shore  is  declared  free  without  the  formality  of  becom- 
ing incorporated  with  its  population  ? 

The  slaves,  we  are  told  in  the  argument  which  we  are 
considering,  as  they  had  no  claim  to  be  considered  as 
mixed  up  with  the  British  population,  had  not,  therefore, 
changed  their  character  either  in  regard  to  "country  or 
condition."  The  old  sophistry  reigns  here.  It  is  taken 
for  granted  that  a  man  has  no  character  but  that  of  coun- 
try and  condition.  In  other  words,  he  must  be  regarded 
by  foreign  states  as  belonging  to  a  particular  nation,  and 
treated  according  to  this  view,  and  no  other.  Now  the 
truth  is,  that  there  is  a  primitive,  indelible  "character" 
fastened  on  a  man,  far  more  important  than  that  of 
"country  or  condition";  and,  looking  at  this,  I  joyfully 
accord  with  our  Cabinet  in  saying  that  the  slaves  of  the 
Creole  did  not  "change  their  character  "  by  touching 
British  soil.  There  they  stood  with  the  character  which 
God  impressed  on  them,  and  which  man  can  never 
efface.  The  British  authorities  gave  them  no  new  char- 
acter, but  simply  recognized  that  which  they  had  worn 
from  the  day  of  their  birth,  the  only  one  which  cannot 
pass  away. 

I  have  now  considered  all  the  circumstances  stated  in 
the  document  as  grounds  of  complaint,  with  one  excep- 
tion, and  this  I  have  deferred  on  account  of  its  uncer- 
tainty, and  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  more  satisfactory  in- 
formation. The  circumstance  is  this,  "  that  the  slaves 
were  liberated  by  the  interference  of  the  colonial  author- 
ities" ;  that  these  "not  only  gave  no  aid,  but  did  actu- 
ally interfere  to  set  free  the  slaves,  and  to  enable  them 
to  disperse  themselves  beyond  the  reach  of  the  master 
of  the  vessel  or  their  owners."     This  statement  is  taken 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  261 

from  the  protest  of  the  captain  and  crew  made  at  New 
Orleans,  which,  indeed,  uses  much  stronger  language, 
and  charges  on  the  British  authorities  much  more  ex- 
ceptionable interference.  This,  as  I  have  said,  is  to  be 
suspected  of  exaggeration  or  unjust  coloring,  not  on  the 
ground  of  any  peculiar  falseness  in  the  men  who  signed 
it,  but  because  of  the  tendency  of  passion  and  interest  to 
misconstrue  the  offensive  conduct  of  others.  But  admit- 
ting the  correctness  of  the  protest,  we  cannot  attach  im- 
portance to  the  complaint  of  the  document.  This  insists 
that  the  English  authorities  "interfered  to  set  free  the 
slaves."  I  reply  that  the  authorities  did  not  and  could 
not  set  the  colored  men  free,  and  for  the  plain  reason, 
that  they  were  in  no  sense  slaves  in  the  British  port. 
The  authorities  found  them  in  the  first  instance  both  le- 
gally and  actually  free.  How,  then,  could  they  be  lib- 
erated ?  They  stood  before  the  magistrates  free  at  the 
first  moment.  They  had  passed  beyond  the  legislation 
of  the  state  which  had  imposed  their  chains.  They  had 
come  under  a  jurisdiction  which  knew  nothing  of  prop- 
erty in  man,  nothing  of  the  relation  of  master  and  slave. 
As  soon  as  they  entered  the  British  waters  the  legal 
power  of  the  captain  over  them,  whatever  it  might  have 
been,  ceased.  They  were  virtually  "  beyond  his  reach," 
even  whilst  on  board.  Of  course,  no  act  of  the  authori- 
ties was  needed  for  their  liberation. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  colored  men  were  not  only 
legally  free  on  entering  the  British  port,  they  were  so 
actually  and  as  a  matter  of  fact.  The  British  authorities 
had  not  the  merit  of  exerting  the  least  physical  power  to 
secure  to  them  their  right  to  liberty.  The  slaves  had 
liberated  themselves.  They  had  imprisoned  the  captain. 
They  had  taken  the  command  of  the  vessel.     The  Brit- 


262  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

ish  authorities  interfered  to  liberate,  not  the  colored 
people,  but  the  captain  ;  not  to  uphold,  but  arrest  "  the 
mutineers."  Their  action  was  friendly  to  the  officers 
and  crew.  In  all  this  action,  however,  they  did  noth- 
ing, of  course,  to  reduce  the  slaves  a  second  time  to 
bondage.  Had  they,  in  restoring  the  vessel  to  the  cap- 
tain, replaced,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  hberated  slaves 
under  the  yoke,  they  would  have  done  so  at  their  peril. 
How,  then,  could  they  free  those  whom  they  knew  only 
as  free  ?  They  simply  declared  them  free,  declared  a 
matter  of  fact  which  could  not  be  gainsaid.  If  they  per- 
suaded them  to  leave  the  ship,  they  plainly  acted  in 
this  as  counsellors  and  friends,  and  exerted  no  official 
power. 

It  is  said,  indeed,  in  the  protest,  that  the  magistrates 
"commanded"  the  slaves  to  go  on  shore.  If  this  be 
true,  and  if  the  command  were  accompanied  with  any 
force,  they  indeed  committed  a  wrong  ;  but  one,  I  fear, 
for  which  our  government  will  be  slow  to  seek  redress. 
They  wronged  the  liberated  slaves.  These  were  free, 
and  owed  no  obedience  to  such  a  command.  They  had 
a  right  to  stay  where  they  were,  a  right  to  return  to 
America  ;  and  in  being  compelled  to  go  on  shore  they 
received  an  injury  for  which  our  government,  if  so  dis- 
posed, may  make  complaint.  But  the  slaves  alone  were 
the  injured  party.  The  right  of  the  owner  was  not 
violated,  for  he  had  no  right.  His  claim  was  a  nullity 
in  the  British  port.  He  was  not  known  there.  The 
law  on  wiiich  he  stood  in  his  own  country  was  there  a 
dead  letter.  Who  can  found'  on  it  a  complaint  against 
the  British  government  ^ 

It  is  said  that  the  "  comity  of  nations  "  forbade  this 
interference.     But  this  comity  is  a  vague,  unsettled  law, 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  263 

and  ought  not  to  come  into  competition  with  the  obliga- 
tions of  a  state  to  injured  men  thrown  on  its  protection, 
and  whose  Uves  and  liberties  are  at  stake.*  We  must 
wait,  however,  for  farther  light  from  Nassau,  to  compre- 
hend the  whole  case.  It  is  not  impossible  that  the  au- 
thorities at  that  port  exerted  an  undue  influence,  and 
took  on  themselves  an  undue  responsibility.  x\mong  the 
liberated  slaves  there  were  undoubtedly  not  a  few  so 
ignorant  and  helpless  as  to  be  poorly  fitted  to  seek  their 
fortune  in  the  West  Indies,  among  strangers  little  dis- 
posed to  sympathize  with  their  sufferings  or  aid  their 
inexperience.  These  ought  to  have  been  assured  of 
their  liberty  ;  but  they  should  have  been  left  to  follow, 
without  any  kind  of  resistance,  their  shrinking  from  an 
unknown  shore,  and  their  desire  to  return  to  the  land  of 
their  birth,  whenever  these  feelings  were  expressed. 

I  know  not  that  I  have  overlooked  any  of  the  consid- 
erations which  are  urged  in  the  Executive  document  in 
support  of  our  complaints  against  Great  Britain  in  the 
case  of  the  Creole.  I  have  labored  to  understand  and 
meet  their  full  force.  I  am  sorry  to  have  been  obliged 
to  enter  into  these  so  minutely,  and  to  repeat  what  T 
deem  true  principles  so  often.  But  the  necessity  was 
laid  on  me.  The  document  does  not  lay  down  explicit- 
ly any  great  principle  with  which  our  claim  must  stand 
or  fall.  Its  strength  hes  in  the  skilful  suggestion  of  vari- 
ous circumstances  which  strike  the  common  reader,  and 
which  must  successively  be  examined,  to  show  their  in- 
sufficiency to  the  end  for  which  they  are  adduced.  It  is 
possible,  however,  to  give  something  of  a  general  form 
to  the  opinions  expressed  in  it,  and  to  detect  under  these 

•  See  Note  B. 


264  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

a  general  principle.  This  I  shall  proceed  to  do,  as 
necessary  to  the  full  comprehension  of  this  paper.  The 
opinions  scattered  through  the  document  may  be  thus 
expressed  :  —  "Slaves,  pronounced  to  be  property  by 
American  law,  and  shipped  as  such,  ought  to  be  so 
regarded  by  a  foreign  government  on  whose  shores  they 
may  be  thrown.  This  government  is  bound  to  regard 
the  national  stamp  set  on  them.  It  has  no  right  to  in- 
quire into  the  condition  of  these  persons.  It  cannot  give 
to  them  the  character  or  privileges  of  the  country  to 
which  they  are  carried.  Suppose  a  government  to  have 
declared  opium  a  thing  in  which  no  property  can  lawfully 
exist  or  be  asserted.  Would  it,  therefore,  have  a  right 
to  take  the  character  of  property  from  opium,  when 
driven  in  a  foreign  ship  into  its  ports,  and  to  cast  it  into 
the  sea  .''  Certainly  not.  Neither,  because  it  declares 
that  men  cannot  be  property,  can  it  take  this  character 
from  slaves,  when  they  are  driven  into  its  ports  from  a 
country  which  makes  them  property  by  its  laws.  They 
still  belong  to  the  distant  claimant  ;  his  right  must  not  be 
questioned  or  disturbed  ;  and  he  must  be  aided  in  hold- 
ing them  in  bondage,  if  his  power  over  them  is  endan- 
gered by  distress  or  mutiny."  Such  are  the  opinions 
of  the  document,  in  a  condensed  form,  and  they  involve 
one  great  principle,  namely,  this  :  that  property  is  an 
arbitrary  thing,  created  by  governments  ;  that  a  govern- 
ment may  make  any  thing  property  at  its  will  ;  and  that 
what  its  subjects  or  citizens  hold  as  property,  under  this 
sanction,  must  be  regarded  as  such,  without  inquiry,  by 
the  civilized  world.  According  to  the  document,  a  na- 
tion may  attach  the  character  of  property  to  whatever  it 
pleases  ;  may  attach  it  alike  to  men  and  women,  beef 
and  pork,  cotton  and  rice ;  and  other  nations,  into  whose 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  265 

ports  its  vessels  may  pass,  are  bound  to  respect  its  laws 
in  these  particulars,  and  in  case  of  distress  to  assist  in 
enforcing  them.  Let  our  country,  through  its  established 
government,  declare  our  fathers  or  mothers,  sons  or 
daughters,  to  be  property  ;  and  they  become  such,  and 
the  right  of  the  master  must  not  be  questioned  at  home 
or  abroad. 

Now  this  doctrine,  stated  in  plain  language,  needs  no 
labored  refutation  ;  it  is  disproved  by  the  immediate  tes- 
timony of  conscience  and  common  sense.  Property  is 
not  an  arbitrary  thing,  dependent  wholly  on  man's  will. 
It  has  its  foundation  and  great  laws  in  nature,  and  these 
cannot  be  violated  without  crime.  It  is  plainly  the  in- 
tention of  Providence  that  certain  things  should  be 
owned,  should  be  held  as  property.  They  fulfil  their 
end  only  by  such  appropriation.  The  material  world 
was  plainly  made  to  be  subjected  to  human  labor,  and 
its  products  to  be  moulded  by  skill  to  human  use.  He 
who  wins  them  by  honest  toil  has  a  right  to  them,  and  is 
wronged  when  others  seize  and  consume  them.  The 
document  supposes  a  government  to  declare  that  opium 
is  an  article  in  which  property  cannot  exist  or  be  assert- 
ed, and  on  this  ground  to  wrest  it  from  the  owner  and 
throw  it  into  the  sea  ;  and  this  it  considers  a  parallel  case 
to  the  declaration  that  property  in  man  cannot  exist. 
But  who  does  not  see  that  the  parallel  is  absurd  .'*  The 
poppy,  which  contains  the  opium,  is  by  its  nature  fitted 
and  designed  to  be  held  as  property.  The  man  who 
rears  it  by  his  capital,  industry,  and  skill  thus  establishes 
a  right  to  it,  and  is  injured  if  it  be  torn  from  him,  except 
in  the  special  case  where  some  higher  right  supersedes 
that  of  property.  The  poppy  is  not  wronged  by  being 
owned  and  consumed.     It  has  no  intelligence,  no  con- 

VOL.   VI.  23 


266  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

science  for  its  own  direction,  no  destiny  to  fulfil  by  the 
wise  use  and  culture  of  its  powers.  It  has  therefore  no 
rights.  By  being  appropriated  to  an  individual  it  does 
good,  it  suffers  no  wrong. 

Here  are  the  grounds  of  property.  They  are  found 
in  the  nature  of  the  articles  so  used  ;  and  where  these 
grounds  are  wholly  wanting,  as  in  the  case  of  human 
beings,  it  cannot  exist  or  be  asserted.  A  man  was  made 
to  be  an  owner,  not  to  be  owned  ;  to  acquire,  not  to  be- 
come property.  He  has  faculties  for  the  government  of 
himself.  He  has  a  great  destiny.  He  sustains  tender 
and  sacred  relations,  especially  those  of  parent  and  hus- 
band, and  with  the  duties  and  blessings  of  these  no  one 
must  interfere.  As  such  a  being,  he  has  rights.  These 
belong  to  his  very  nature.  They  belong  to  every  one 
who  partakes  it  ;  all  here  are  equal.  He  therefore  may 
be  wronged,  and  is  most  grievously  wronged,  when  forci- 
bly seized  by  a  fellow-creature,  who  has  no  other  nature 
and  rights  than  his  own,  and  seized  by  such  a  one  to 
live  for  his  pleasure,  to  be  bowed  to  his  absolute  will,  to 
be  placed  under  his  lash,  to  be  sold,  driven  from  home, 
and  torn  from  parent,  wife,  and  child,  for  another's  gain. 
Does  any  parallel  exist  between  such  a  being  and  opium  ? 
Can  we  help  seeing  a  distinction  between  the  nature  of 
a  plant  and  a  man  which  forbids  their  being  confounded 
under  the  same  character  of  property  .''  Is  not  the  dis- 
tinction recognized  by  us  in  the  administration  of  our 
laws  ?  When  a  man  from  the  South  brings  hither  his 
watch  and  trunk,  is  his  right  to  them  deemed  a  whit  the 
less  sacred  because  the  laws  of  his  State  cease  to  protect 
them  ?  Do  we  not  recognize  them  as  his,  as  intuitively 
and  cheerfully  as  if  they  belonged  to  a  citizen  of  our  own 
State  ?     Are  they  not  his,  here  and  everywhere  .''     Do 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  267 

we  not  feel  that  he  would  be  wronged  were  they  torn 
from  him  ?  But  when  he  brings  a  slave,  we  do  not 
recognize  his  property  in  our  fellow-creature.  We  pro- 
nounce the  slave  free.  Whose  reason  and  conscience 
do  not  intuitively  pronounce  this  distinction  between  a 
man  and  a  watch  to  be  just  ? 

It  may  be  urged,  however,  that  this  is  a  distinction  for 
moralists,  not  for  governments  ;  that,  if  a  government 
establishes  property,  however  unjustly,  in  human  beings, 
this  is  its  own  concern,  and  the  concern  of  no  other  ; 
and  that  articles  on  board  its  vessels  must  be  recognized 
by  other  nations  as  what  it  declares  them  to  be,  without 
any  question  as  to  the  morality  or  fitness  of  its  measures. 
One  nation,  we  are  told,  is  not  to  interfere  with  another. 
T  need  not  repeat,  in  reply,  what  I  have  so  often  said, 
that  a  government  has  solemn  duties  towards  every  hu- 
man being  entering  its  ports,  duties  which  no  local  law 
about  property  in  another  country  can  in  any  degree  im- 
pair. I  would  only  say,  that  a  government  is  not  bound 
in  all  possible  cases  to  respect  the  stamp  put  by  another 
government  on  articles  transported  in  the  vessels  of  the 
latter.  The  comity  of  nations  supposes  that  in  all  such 
transactions  respect  is  paid  to  common  sense  and  com- 
mon justice.  Suppose  a  government  to  declare  cotton 
to  be  horses,  to  write  "Horse"  on  all  the  bales  within 
its  limits,  and  to  set  these  down  as  horses  in  its  custom- 
house papers  ;  and  suppose  a  cargo  of  these  to  enter  a 
port  where  the  importation  of  cotton  is  forbidden.  Will 
the  comity  of  nations  forbid  the  foreign  nation  to  ques- 
tion the  character  which  has  been  affixed  by  law  to  the 
bales  in  the  country  to  which  they  belong  .''  Can  a  law 
change  the  nature  of  things,  in  the  intercourse  of  nations  ? 
Must  officers  be  stone-blind  through  "  comity  "  ?    Would 


268  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

It  avail  anything  to  say,  that,  by  an  old  domestic  institu* 
tion  in  the  exporting  country,  cotton  was  pronounced 
horse,  and  that  such  institution  must  not  be  interfered 
with  by  foreigners  ?  Now,  in  the  estimation  of  England 
and  of  sound  morality,  it  is  as  hard  to  turn  man  into  prop- 
erty as  horses  into  cotton,  and  this  estimation  England 
has  embodied  in  its  laws.  Can  we  expect  such  a  coun- 
try to  reverence  the  stamp  of  property  on  men,  because 
attached  to  them  by  a  foreign  land  ? 

The  Executive  document  not  only  maintains  the  obli- 
gation of  the  English  authorities  to  respect  what  the 
South  had  stamped  on  the  slave,  but  maintains  earnestly 
that  "  the  English  authorities  had  no  right  to  inquire  into 
the  cargo  of  the  vessel,  or  the  condition  of  persons  on 
board."  Now  it  is  unnecessary  to  dispute  about  this 
right ;  for  the  British  authorities  did  not  exercise  it,  did 
not  need  it.  The  truth  of  the  case,  and  the  whole  truth, 
they  could  not  help  seeing,  even  had  they  wished  to  re- 
main blind.  Master,  crew,  passengers,  colored  people, 
declared  with  one  voice  that  the  latter  were  shipped  as 
slaves.  Their  character  was  thus  forced  on  the  govern- 
ment, which  of  course  had  no  liberty  of  action  in  the 
case.  By  the  laws  of  England,  slavery  could  not  be 
recognized  within  its  jurisdiction.  No  human  being  could 
be  recognized  as  property.  The  authorities  had  but  one 
question  to  ask  :  Are  these  poor  creatures  men  ?  and  to 
solve  this  question  no  right  of  search  was  needed.  It 
solved  itself.  A  single  glance  settled  the  point.  Of 
course  we  have  no  ground  to  complain  of  a  busy  inter- 
meddling with  cargo  and  persons,  to  determine  their 
character,  by  British  authorities. 

I  have  thus  finished  my  examination  of  the  document, 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FKEE  STATES.  269 

and  shall  conclude  with  some  general  remarks.  And 
first,  I  cannot  but  express  my  sorrow  at  the  tone  of  in- 
humanity which  pervades  it.  I  have  said  at  the  begin- 
ning that  I  should  make  no  personal  strictures  ;  and  I 
have  no  thought  of  charging  on  our  Cabinet  any  singular 
want  of  human  feeling.  The  document  bears  witness, 
not  to  individual  hardness  of  heart,  but  to  the  callous- 
ness, the  cruel  insensibility,  which  has  seized  the  com- 
munity at  large.  Our  contact  with  slavery  has  seared  in 
a  measure  almost  all  hearts.  Were  there  a  healthy  tone 
of  feeling  among  us,  certain  passages  in  this  document 
would  call  forth  a  burst  of  displeasure.  For  example, 
what  an  outrage  is  offered  to  humanity  in  instituting  a 
comparison  between  man  and  opium,  in  treating  these  as 
having  equal  rights  and  equal  sanctity,  in  degrading  an 
immortal  child  of  God  to  the  level  of  a  drug,  in  placing 
both  equally  at  the  mercy  of  selfish  legislators  !  To  an 
unsophisticated  man  there  is  not  only  inhumanity,  but 
irrehgion,  in  thus  treating  a  being  made  in  the  image  of 
God  and  infinitely  dear  to  the  Universal  Father. 

In  the  same  tone,  the  slaves,  who  regained  their  free- 
dom by  a  struggle  which  cost  the  life  of  a  white  man, 
and  by  which  one  of  their  own  number  perished,  are  set 
down  as  "mutineers  and  murderers."  Be  it  granted 
that  their  violence  is  condemned  by  the  Christian  law. 
Be  it  granted  that  the  assertion  of  our  rights  must  not  be 
stained  with  cruelty  ;  that  it  is  better  for  us  to  die  slaves 
than  to  inflict  death  on  our  oppressor.  But  is  there  a 
man,  having  a  manly  spirit,  who  can  withhold  all  sym- 
pathy and  admiration  from  men  who,  having  grown  up 
under  the  blighting  influence  of  slavery,  yet  had  the 
courage  to  put  hfe  to  hazard  for  hberty  ?  Are  freemen 
slow  to  comprehend  and  honor  the  impulse  which  stirs 
23* 


270  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

men  to  break  an  unjust  and  degrading  chain  ?  Would 
the  laws  of  any  free  state  pronounce  the  taking  of  life 
in  such  a  case  "  murder  "  ?  Because  a  man,  under  co- 
ercion, whilst  on  his  way  to  a  new  yoke,  and  in  the  act 
of  being  carried  by  force  from  wife  and  children  and 
home,  sheds  blood  to  escape  his  oppressor,  is  he  to  be 
confounded  with  the  vilest  criminals  ?  Does  a  republic, 
whose  heroic  age  was  the  Revolution  of  1776,  and  whose 
illustrious  men  earned  their  glory  in  a  sanguinary  con- 
flict for  rights,  find  no  mitigation  of  this  bloodshed  in 
the  greater  wrongs  to  which  the  slave  is  subjected  ? 
This  letter  would  have  lost  nothing  of  its  force,  it 
would  at  least  have  shown  better  taste,  had  it  consulted 
humanity  enough  to  be  silent  about  "  opium  "  and 
"murder." 

I  cannot  refrain  from  another  view  of  the  document. 
This  declaration  of  national  principles  cannot  be  too 
much  lamented  and  disapproved  for  the  dishonor  it  has 
brought  on  our  country.  It  openly  arrays  us,  as  a  peo- 
ple, against  the  cause  of  human  freedom.  It  throws  us 
in  the  way  ^  the  progress  of  liberal  principles  through 
the  earth.  IThe  grand  distinction  of  our  Revolution  was, 
that  it  not  only  secured  the  independence  of  a  single 
nation,  but  asserted  the  rights  of  mankind..  It  gave  to 
the  spirit  of  freedom  an  impulse,  wdiich,  notwithstanding 
the  dishonor  cast  on  the  cause  by  the  excesses  of  France, 
is  still  acting  deeply  and  broadly  on  the  civilized  world. 
Since  that  period  a  new  consciousness  of  what  is  due 
to  a  human  being  has  been  working  its  way.  It  has 
penetrated  into  despotic  states.  Even  in  countries 
where  the  individual  has  no  constitutional  means  of  con- 
trolling government  personal  liberty  has  a  sacredness 
and  protection  never  known  before.     Among  the  tri- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  27 1 

umphs  of  this  spirit  of  freedom  and  humanity,  one  of  the 
most  signal  is  the  desire  to  put  an  end  to  slavery.  The 
cry  for  Emancipation  swells  and  spreads  from  land  to 
land.  And  whence  comes  the  opposing  cry  ?  From 
St.  Petersburg  ?  From  Constantinople  ^  From  the 
gloomy,  jealous  cabinets  of  despotism  ^  No  ;  but  from 
republican  America  !  from  that  country  whose  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  an  era  in  human  history  !  The 
nations  of  the  earth  are  beginning  to  proclaim,  that  slaves 
shall  not  breathe  their  air,  that  whoever  touches  their 
soil  shall  be  free.  Republican  America  protests  against 
this  reverence  for  right  and  humanity,  and  summons  the 
nations  to  enforce  her  laws  against  the  slave.  O  my 
country  !  hailed  once  as  the  asylum  of  the  oppressed, 
once  consecrated  to  liberty,  once  a  name  pronounced 
with  tears  of  joy  and  hope  !  now  a  by-word  among  the 
nations,  the  scorn  of  the  very  subjects  of  despotism  ! 
How  art  thou  fallen,  morning-star  of  freedom  !  And  has 
it  come  to  this  ?  Must  thy  children  blush  to  pronounce 
thy  name  ?  Must  we  cower  in  the  presence  of  the 
Christian  world  .''  Must  we  be  degraded  to  the  lowest 
place  among  Christian  nations  ?  Is  the  sword  which 
wrought  out  our  liberties  to  be  unsheathed  now  to  en- 
force the  claims  of  slavery  on  foreign  states  .''  Can  we 
bear  this  burning  shame  ?  Are  the  Free  States  pre- 
pared to  incur  this  infamy  and  crime  ? 

"  Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England."  I  learned  this 
line  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  in  imagination  I  took  flight 
to  the  soil  which  could  never  be  tainted  by  slaves. 
Through  the  spirit  which  spoke  in  that  line  England  has 
decreed  that  slaves  cannot  breathe  in  her  islands.  Ought 
we  not  to  rejoice  in  this  new  conquest  of  humanity  ? 
Ought  not  the  tidings  of  it  to  have  been  received  with 


272  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

beaming  eyes  and  beating  hearts  ?  Instead  of  this,  we 
demand  that  Humanity  shall  retrace  her  steps,  and  Lib- 
erty resign  her  trophies.  We  call  on  a  great  nation  to 
abandon  its  solemnly  pronounced  conviction  of  duty,  its 
solemnly  pledged  respect  for  human  rights,  and  to  do 
what  it  believes  to  be  unjust,  inhuman,  and  base.  Is 
there  nothing  of  insult  in  such  a  demand  .''  This  case  is 
no  common  one.  It  is  not  a  question  of  policy,  not  an 
ordinary  diplomatic  concern.  A  whole  people,  from  no 
thought  of  policy,  but  planting  itself  on  the  ground  of 
justice  and  of  Christianity,  sweeps  slavery  from  its  soil, 
and  declares  that  no  slave  shall  tread  there.  This  pro- 
found religious  conviction,  in  which  all  Christian  nations 
are  joining  her,  we  come  in  conflict  with,  openly  and 
without  shame.  Is  this  an  enviable  position  for  a  coun- 
try which  would  respect  itself  or  be  respected  by  the 
world  ?  It  is  idle,  and  worse  than  idle,  to  say,  as  is 
sometimes  said,  that  England  has  no  motive  but  policy 
in  her  movements  about  slavery.  He  who  says  so  talks 
ignorantly  or  recklessly.  I  have  studied  abolitionism  in 
England  enough  to  assure  those  who  have  neglected  it 
that  it  was  the  act,  not  of  the  politician,  but  of  the  peo- 
ple. In  this  respect  it  stands  alone  in  history.  It  was 
a  disinterested  movement  of  a  Christian  nation  in  behalf 
of  oppressed  strangers,  beginning  with  Christians,  car- 
ried through  by  Christians.  The  government  resisted  it 
for  years.  The  government  was  compelled  to  yield  to 
the  voice  of  the  people.  No  act  of  the  English  nation 
was  ever  so  national,  so  truly  the  people's  act,  as  this. 
And  can  we  hope  to  conquer  the  conscience  as  well  as 
the  now  solemnly  adopted  policy  of  a  great  nation  ? 
Were  England  to  concede  this  point,  she  would  prove 
herself  false  to   known,  acknowledged  truth  and  duty. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  273 

Her  freshest,  proudest  laurel  would  wither.  The  toils 
and  prayers  of  her  Wilberforces,  Clarksons,  and  a  host 
of  holy  men,  which  now  invoke  God's  blessings  on  her, 
would  be  turned  to  her  reproach  and  shame,  and  call 
down  the  vengeance  of  Heaven. 

'In  bearing  this  testimony  to  the  spirit  of  the  English 
people  in  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  and  of  slavery, 
nothing  is  farther  from  my  mind  than  a  disposition  to  de- 
fend the  public  policy  or  institutions  of  that  country.  In 
this  case,  as  in  most  others,  the  people  are  better  than 
'heir  rulers.  England  is  one  of  the  last  countries  of 
ivhich  I  am  ready  to  become  a  partisan.  There  must 
be  something  radically  wrong  in  the  policy,  institutions, 
and  spirit  of  a  nation  which  all  other  nations  regard  with 
jealousy  and  dislike.  Great  Britain,  with  all  her  pro- 
gress in  the  arts,  has  not  learned  the  art  of  inspiring  con- 
fidence and  love.  She  sends  forth  her  bounty  over  the 
earth,  but,  politically  considered,  has  made  the  world  her 
foe.  Her  Chinese  war,  and  her  wild  extension  of  do- 
minion over  vast  regions  which  she  cannot  rule  well  or 
retain,  give  reason  to  fear  that  she  is  falling  a  prey  to 
the  disease  under  which  great  nations  have  so  often 
perished. 

To  a  man  who  looks  with  sympathy  and  brotherly  re- 
gard on  the  mass  of  the  people,  who  is  chiefly  interested 
in  the  "lower  classes,"  England  must  present  much 
which  is  repulsive.  Though  a  monarchy  in  name,  she 
is  an  aristocracy  in  fact ;  and  an  aristocratical  caste,  how- 
ever adorned  by  private  virtue,  can  hardly  help  sinking 
an  infinite  chasm  between  itself  and  the  mullitude  of  men. 
A  privileged  order,  possessing  the  chief  power  of  the 
state,  cannot  but  rule  in  the  spirit  of  an  order,  cannot 
respect  the  mass  of  the  people,  cannot  feel  that  for  lliem 


274  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

government  chiefly  exists  and  ought  to  be  administered, 
and  that  for  them  the  nobleman  holds  his  rank  as  a  trust. 
The  condition  of  the  lower  orders  at  the  present  moment 
is  a  mournful  commentary  on  English  institutions  and 
civilization.  The  multitude  are  depressed  in  that  coun- 
try to  a  degree  of  ignorance,  want,  and  misery  which 
must  touch  every  heart  not  made  of  stone.  In  the  civil- 
ized world  there  are  few  sadder  spectacles  than  the  con- 
trast, now  presented  in  Great  Britain,  of  unbounded 
wealth  and  luxury  with  the  starvation  of  thousands  and 
ten  thousands,  crowded  into  cellars  and  dens  without 
ventilation  or  light,  compared  with  which  the  wigwam  of 
the  Indian  is  a  palace.  Misery,  famine,  brutal  degrada- 
tion, in  the  neighbourhood  and  presence  of  stately  man- 
sions which  ring  with  gayety  and  dazzle  with  pomp  and 
unbounded  profusion,  shock  us  as  no  other  wretchedness 
does  ;  and  this  is  not  an  accidental,  but  an  almost  neces- 
sary effect  of  the  spirit  of  aristocracy  and  the  spirit  of 
trade  acting  intensely  together.  It  is  a  striking  fact,  that 
the  private  charity  of  England,  though  almost  incredible, 
makes  little  impression  on  this  mass  of  misery  ;  thus 
teaching  the  rich  and  titled  to  be  ''just  before  being 
generous,"  and  not  to  look  to  private  munificence  as  a 
remedy  for  the  evils  of  selfish  institutions. 

Notwithstanding  my  admiration  of  the  course  of  Eng- 
land in  reference  to  slavery,  I  see  as  plainly  as  any  the 
wrongs  and  miseries  under  which  her  lower  classes  groan. 
I  do  not  on  this  account,  however,  subscribe  to  a  doc- 
trine very  common  in  this  country,  that  the  poor  Chart- 
ists of  England  are  more  to  be  pitied  than  our  slaves. 
Ah,  no  !  Misery  is  not  slavery  ;  and,  were  it  greater  than 
it  is,  it  would  afford  the  slave-holder  no  warrant  for  tramp- 
ling on  the  rights  and  the  souls  of  his  fellow-creatures. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  275 

The  Chartist,  depressed  as  he  is,  is  not  a  slave.  The 
blood  would  rush  to  his  cheek,  and  the  spirit  of  a  man 
swell  his  emaciated  form,  at  the  suggestion  of  relieving 
his  misery  by  reducing  him  to  bondage  ;  and  this  sensi- 
bility shows  the  immeasurable  distance  between  him  and 
the  slave.  He  has  rights,  and  knows  them.  He  pleads 
his  own  cause,  and  just  and  good  men  plead  it  for  him. 
According  to  the  best  testimony,  intelligence  is  spread- 
ing among  the  Chartists  ;  so  is  temperance  ;  so  is  self- 
restraint.  They  feel  themselves  to  be  men.  Their 
wives  and  children  do  not  belong  to  another.  They 
meet  together  for  free  discussion,  and  their  speeches  are 
not  wanting  in  strong  sense  and  strong  expression.  Not 
a  few  among  them  have  seized  on  the  idea  of  the  eleva- 
tion of  their  class  by  a  new  intellectual  and  moral  culture, 
and  here  is  a  living  seed,  the  promise  of  immeasurable 
good.  Shall  such  men,  who  aspire  after  a  better  lot, 
and  among  whom  strong  and  generous  spirits  are  spring- 
ing up,  be  confounded  w^ith  slaves,  whose  lot  admits  no 
change,  who  must  not  speak  of  wrongs  or  think  of  re- 
dress, whom  it  is  a  crime  to  teach  to  read,  to  whom 
even  the  Bible  is  a  sealed  book,  who  have  no  future,  no 
hope  on  this  side  death  ? 

I  have  spoken  freely  of  England  ;  yet  I  do  not  forget 
our  debt  or  the  debt  of  the  world  to  her.  She  was  the 
mother  of  our  freedom.  She  has  been  the  bulwark  of 
Protestantism.  What  nation  has  been  more  fruitful  in 
great  men,  in  men  of  genius  ?  What  nation  can  com- 
pare with  her  in  munificence  .''  What  nation  but  must 
now  acknowledge  her  unrivalled  greatness  ?  That  little 
island  sways  a  wider  empire  than  the  Roman,  and  has  a 
power  of  blessing  mankind  never  before  conferred  on  a 
people.     Would  to  God  she  could  learn,  what  nation 


276  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

never  yet  learned,  so  to  use  power  as  to  inspire  confi- 
dence, not  fear,  so  as  to  awaken  the  world's  gratitude, 
not  its  jealousy  and  revenge  ! 

But  whatever  be  the  claims  of  England  or  of  any  other 
state,  I  must  cling  to  my  own  country  with  strong  pre- 
ference, and  cling  to  it  even  now,  in  this  dark  day,  this 
day  of  her  humiliation,  when  she  stands  before  the  world 
branded,  beyond  the  truth,  with  dishonesty,  and,  too 
truly,  with  the  crime  of  resisting  the  progress  of  freedom 
on  the  earth.  After  all,  she  has  her  glory.  After  all,  in 
these  Free  States  a  man  is  still  a  Man.  He  knows  his 
rights,  he  respects  himself,  and  acknowledges  the  equal 
claim  of  his  brother.  We  have  order  without  the  dis- 
play of  force.  We  have  government  without  soldiers, 
spies,  or  the  constant  presence  of  coercion.  The  rights 
of  thought,  of  speech,  of  the  press,  of  conscience,  of 
worship  are  enjoyed  to  the  full  without  violence  or  dan- 
gerous excess.  We  are  even  distinguished  by  kindliness 
and  good  temper  amidst  this  unbounded  freedom.  The 
individual  is  not  lost  in  the  mass,  but  has  a  consciousness 
of  self-subsistence,  and  stands  erect.  That  character 
which  we  call  Manliness  is  stamped  on  the  multitude 
here  as  nowhere  else.  No  aristocracy  interferes  with  the 
natural  relations  of  men  to  one  another.  No  hierarchy 
weighs  down  the  intellect,  and  makes  the  church  a  prison 
to  the  soul,  from  which  it  ought  to  break  every  chain. 
I  make  no  boast  of  my  country's  progress,  marvellous 
as  it  has  been.  I  feel  deeply  her  defects.  But,  in  the 
language  of  Cowper,  I  can  say  to  her,  — 

"  Yet,  being  free,  I  love  thee  ;  for  the  sake 
Of  that  one  feature  can  be  well  content, 
Disgraced  as  thou  hast  been,  poor  as  thou  art, 
To  seek  no  sublunary  rest  beside." 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  277 

(Our  country  is  free  ;  this  is  its  glory.  How  deeply  to'^ 
Delamented  is  it  that  this  glory  is  obscured  l^j  the  pres- 
ence of  slavery  in  any  part  of  our  territory  !  The  dis- 
tant foreigner,  to  whom  America  is  a  point,  and  who 
communicates  the  taint  of  a  part  to  the  whole,  hears 
with  derision  our  boast  of  liberty,  and  points  with  a  sneer 
to  our  ministers  in  London  not  ashamed  to  plead  the 
rights  of  slavery  before  the  civilized  world.  He  ought 
to  learn  that  America,  which  shrinks  in  his  mind  into 
a  narrow  unity,  is  a  league  of  sovereignties  stretching 
from  the  Bay  of  Fundy  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  des- 
tined, unless  disunited,  to  spread  from  ocean  to  ocean  ; 
that  a  great  majority  of  its  citizens  hold  no  slaves  ;  that 
a  vast  proportion  of  its  wealth,  commerce,  manufactures, 
and  arts  belongs  to  the  wide  region  not  blighted  by  this 
evil  ;  that  we  of  the  Free  States  cannot  touch  slavery, 
where  it  exists,  with  one  of  our  fingers  ;  that  it  exists 
without  and  against  our  will  ;  and  that  our  necessity  is 
not  our  choice  and  crime.*  Still,  the  cloud  hangs  over 
us  as  a  people,  the  only  dark  and  menacing  cloud.  Can 
it  not  be  dispersed  ?  Will  not  the  South,  so  alive  to 
honor,  so  ardent  and  fearless,  and  containing  so  many 
elements  of  greatness,  resolve  on  the  destruction  of  what 
does  not  profit  and  cannot  but  degrade  it  ?  Must  sla- 
very still  continue  to  exist,  a  firebrand  at  home  and  our 
shame  abroad  ?  Can  we  of  the  Free  States  brook  that 
it  should  be  thrust  perpetually  by  our  diplomacy  on  the 
notice  of  a  reproving  world  ?  that  it  should  become  our 
distinction  among  the  nations  ?  that  it  should  place  us 
behind  all  ?  Can  we  endure  that  it  should  control  our 
public    councils,    that    it    should    threaten    war,    should 

*  See  Note  C. 

VOL.  VI.  24 


278  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

threaten  to  assert  its  claims  in  the  thunder  of  our  artil- 
lery ?  Can  we  endure  that  our  peace  should  be  broken, 
our  country  exposed  to  invasion,  our  cities  stormed,  our 
fields  ravaged,  our  prosperity  withered,  our  progress 
arrested,  our  sons  slain,  our  homes  turned  into  deserts, 
not  for  rights,  not  for  liberty,  not  for  a  cause  which  hu- 
manity smiles  on  and  God  will  bless,  but  to  rivet  chains 
on  fellow-creatures,  to  extend  the  law  of  slavery  through- 
out the  earth  ?  These  are  great  questions  for  the  Free 
States.  I  must  defer  the  answer  of  them  to  another 
time.  The  duties  of  the  Free  States  in  relation  to  sla- 
very deserve  the  most  serious  regard.  Let  us  implore 
Him  who  was  the  God  of  our  fathers,  and  who  has 
shielded  us  in  so  many  perils,  to  open  our  minds  and 
hearts  to  what  is  true  and  just  and  good,  to  continue  our 
union  at  home  and  our  peace  abroad,  and  to  make  our 
country  a  living  witness  to  the  blessings  of  freedom,  of 
Reverence  for  Right  on  our  own  shores  and  in  our  in- 
tercourse with  all  nations. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  279 


NOTES. 


JS'ote  A.  page  248. 

To  the  preceding  remarks  it  is  in  vain  to  oppose  "the 
comity  of  nations."  England,  in  her  public  acts  having 
pronounced  slavery  unjust,  pronounces  also  that  "com- 
ity "  cannot  prevail  against  justice.  And  is  not  this  right 
and  true  .''  Can  a  nation  be  bound  by  comity  to  recog- 
nize within  its  borders,  and  to  carry  into  effect  by  its 
judicial  or  executive  machinery,  the  laws  of  another  coun- 
try which  it  holds  to  be  violations  of  the  law  of  nature  or 
of  God  .''  Would  not  our  own  courts  indignantly  refuse 
to  enforce  a  contract  or  relation  between  foreigners  here, 
which,  however  valid  in  their  own  land  where  it  was 
made,  is  contrary  to  our  own  institutions,  or  to  the  ac- 
knowledged precepts  of  morality  and  religion  ? 


JS'ott  B.  page  263. 

"It  is  said  that  this  alleged  interference  by  the  British 
authorities  was  contrary  to  the  comity  of  nations,  and  that 
therefore  the  British  government  is  bound  to  indemnify  the 
owners  of  the  slaves.  But  indemnity  for  what  }  for  their 
asserted  property  in  these  men  ^  But  that  government 
does  not  recognize  property  in  men.  Suppose  the  skives 
were  dispersed  by  reason  of  its  interference  ;  yet  the  mas- 
ter and  owners  received  no  damage  thereby,  for  they  had 
no  title  to  the  slaves.  Their  property  had  ceased  when 
these  men  came  under  the  benign  influence  of  English 
law." 


280  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 


J^ote  C.  page  211. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  great  majority  in  our  country  who 
have  no  participation  whatever  in  slavery.  Indeed,  it  is 
little  suspected  at  home,  any  more  than  abroad,  how 
small  is  the  number  of  slave-holders  here.  I  learn  from  a 
judicious  correspondent  at  the  South  that  the  slave-holders 
in  that  region  cannot  be  rated  at  more  than  300,000. 
Some  make  them  less.  Supposing  each  of  them  to  be  the 
head  of  a  family,  and  each  family  to  consist  of  five  mem- 
bers ;  then  there  will  be  1 ,500,000  having  a  direct  inter- 
est in  slaves  as  property.  This  is  about  one  eleventh  of 
the  population  of  the  United  States.  The  300,000  actual 
slave-holders  are  about  a  fifty-seventh  part  of  our  whole 
population.  These  govern  the  South  entirely,  by  acting 
in  concert,  and  by  the  confinement  of  the  best  education 
to  their  ranks  ;  and,  still  more,  to  a  considerable  extent 
they  have  governed  the  whole  country.  Their  cry  rises 
above  all  other  sounds  in  the  land.  Few  as  they  are, 
their  voices  well-nigh  drown  the  quiet  reasonings  and  re- 
monstrances of  the  North  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 


THE 


DUTY   OF  THE   FREE   STATES, 

PART  II. 


24 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 


The  first  part  of  this  Tract  was  devoted  to  an  exam- 
ination of  the  affair  of  the  Creole.  Its  object,  however, 
as  the  reader  may  easily  discern,  was  not  so  much  to 
determine  the  merits  of  a  particular  case  as  to  set  forth 
general  principles  of  justice  and  humanity  which  have 
been  too  much  overlooked  in  the  intercourse  of  indi- 
viduals and  nations.  I  shall  keep  the  same  object  in 
view  in  this  second  part  of  my  remarks,  which  will  have 
no  reference  to  the  Creole,  but  be  devoted  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  Duties  of  the  Free  States.  My  great 
aim,  in  what  I  have  written  and  now  write  on  matters  of 
public  interest  is,  to  reunite  politics  and  morality  ;  to 
bring  into  harmony  the  law  of  the  land  and  the  law  of 
God.  Among  the  chief  causes  of  the  miseries  of  nations 
is  the  divorce  which  has  taken  place  between  pohtics  and 
morality  ;  nor  can  we  hope  for  a  better  day,  till  this 
breach  be  healed.  Men  intrusted  with  government  have 
always  been  disposed  to  regard  themselves  as  absolved 
from  the  laws  of  justice  and  humanity.  Falsehoods  and 
frauds  are  allowed  them  for  their  country  or  their  party. 
To  maintain  themselves  against  their  opponents,  they 
may  even  involve  nations  in  war  ;  and  the  murders  and 
robberies  which  follow  this  crime  are  not  visited  on 
their  heads  by  human  justice.     In  all  times  government 


2S4  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

has  been  the  grand  robber,  the  grand  murderer,  and  has 
yet  escaped  the  deep  reprobation  which  breaks  forth 
against  private  guilt.  Such  profligacy  pervades  the 
sphere  of  pohtical  action,  that  the  confidence  of  the  peo- 
ple is  vvellnigh  withdrawn  from  public  men  ;  and  a  vir- 
tuous statesman  is  involved  in  the  suspicions  which  his 
unprincipled  associates  have  drawn  upon  his  vocation. 
Public  life  is  thought  to  release  men  not  only  from  the 
obligations  of  justice,  but  from  the  restraints  of  good 
manners  ;  and  accordingly  the  debates  of  Congress  are 
too  often  polluted  by  vulgar  abuse,  threats,  and  braw^ls. 
So  low  is  the  standard  of  political  life  that  a  man  is  smiled 
at  for  his  simplicity  who  talks  of  introducing  religicii  into 
the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  Religion,  it  is  thought, 
belongs  to  Sabbaths  and  churches,  and  would  be  as  much 
out  of  place  in  cabinets  or  halls  of  legislation  as  a  deli- 
cate lady  on  a  field  of  batde.  A  stranger  might  be 
tempted  to  think  that  the  Sergeant-at-arms  was  stationed 
at  the  doors  of  legislative  chambers  to  forbid  entrance  to 
the  everlasting  law  of  God,  and  that  nothing  but  man's 
impotence  prevents  the  exclusion  of  Him  whose  holy 
presence  fills  the  universe. 

Nothing  is  so  needed  as  to  revive  in  citizens  and  rulers 
the  conviction  of  the  supremacy  of  the  moral.  Christian 
law.  Could  this  be  done,  the  earth  would  cease  to  be 
what  in  a  measure  it  now  is,  the  image  of  hell,  and  would 
begin  to  grow  green  again  with  the  plants  of  paradise. 
Religion,  the  only  true  guide  of  life,  the  guardian  and 
inspirer  of  all  the  virtues,  should  especially  reign  over 
the  deliberations  of  governments,  by  which  the  weal  and 
woe  of  nations,  the  solemn  questions  of  peace  and  war, 
of  life  and  death,  are  determined.  On  this  account 
every  man  who  has  studied  human  duty,  human  perfec- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  285 

tion,  human  happiness,  has  a  right  and  is  bound  to  speak 
on  matters  of  public  concern,  though  his  judgment  may 
be  contemned  by  hackneyed  poHticians.  It  seems,  in- 
deed, to  be  thought  by  some  that  politics  are  mysteries, 
which  only  the  initiated  must  deal  with.  But  in  this 
country  they  belong  to  the  people.  Public  questions 
are  and  ought  to  be  subjected  to  the  moral  judgment  of 
the  community.  They  ought  to  be  referred  to  the  re- 
ligion which  we  profess.  Christianity  was  meant  to  be 
brought  into  actual  life.  The  high  and  the  low,  private 
and  public  men,  are  alike  to  bow^  before  it.  To  remove 
any  sphere  of  human  action  from  its  cognizance  is  virtu- 
ally to  deny  its  divinity,  and  to  absolve  all  men  from  its 
control.  Under  these  impressions  I  shall  speak  of  the 
Duties  of  the  Free  States.  Duties  rank  higher  than 
interests,  and  deserve  the  first  regard.  It  is  my  par- 
ticular object  to  consider  the  obligations  of  the  Free 
States  in  regard  to  slavery  ;  but  I  shall  not  stop  at  these. 
Other  obligations  need  to  be  pressed.  It  is  not,  indeed, 
easy  to  confine  one's  self  within  rigid  bounds,  when  the 
subject  of  Duty  is  discussed  ;  and  accordingly  I  shall 
add  remarks  on  a  few  topics  not  intimately  connected 
with  slavery,  though,  in  truth,  this  subject  will  be  found 
to  insinuate  itself  into  all. 

I  am  to  speak  of  the  Duty  of  the  Free  States  ;  but  it 
is  important  to  observe  that  I  mean  by  these,  not  merely 
communities  represented  in  legislatures,  but  much  more, 
the  individuals,  the  people,  who  compose  them.  I  shall 
speak,  not  of  what  we  are  bound  to  do  as  sovereignties, 
but  as  men,  as  Christians.  I  shall  speak  not  merely  of 
the  action  of  government,  but  of  the  influence  which 
every  man  is  bound  to  exert  in  the  sphere  in  whicli 
Providence  has   placed  him ;  of  the  obligations  of  the 


286  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

individual  to  bring  public  opinion  and  public  affairs,  as 
far  as  he  may,  to  the  standard  of  truth  and  rectitude. 

I  insist  on  this,  because  the  feeling  of  individual  re- 
sponsibility is  very  much  lost,  in  consequence  of  the 
excessive  deference  of  the  private  man  to  the  govern- 
ment under  which  he  lives.  On  the  subject  of  slavery 
in  particular,  the  responsibility  both  at  the  North  and 
South  is  shifted  very  much  from  the  individual  to  the 
state.  The  private  conscience  is  merged  in  the  pubhc. 
What  the  government  determines,  the  multitude  of  men 
are  apt  to  think  right.  We  do  not  exercise  our  moral 
judgment,  because  it  has  been  forestalled  by  the  consti- 
tution and  by  the  laws.  We  are  members  of  a  commu- 
nity, and  this  relation  triumphs  over  all  others. 
(Now  the  truth  is,  that  no  decision  of  the  state  ab- 
solves us  from  the  moral  law,  from  the  authority  of  con- 
science.J  It  is  no  excuse  for  our  wrong-doing,  that  the 
artificial  organization,  called  society,  has  done  wrong. 
Jt  is  of  the  highest  moment  that  the  prevalent  notions 
of  a  man's  relation  to  the  state  should  be  rectified.  The 
idea  of  this  relation  is  so  exaggerated  and  perverted  as 
to  impair  the  force  of  every  other.  A  man's  country  is 
more  thought  of  than  his  nature.  His  connexion  with 
a  particular  community  is  more  respected  than  his  con- 
nexion with  God.  His  alliance  with  his  race  is  reduced 
to  a  nullity  by  his  alliance  with  the  state.  He  must  be 
ready  to  give  up  his  race,  to  sacrifice  all  its  rights  and 
interests,  that  the  little  spot  where  he  was  born  may 
triumph  or  prosper.  The  history  of  nations  is  very 
much  the  history  of  the  immolation  of  the  individual  to 
the  country.  His  nationality  stands  out  before  all  his 
other  attributes.  The  nation,  represented  by  one  or  a 
few  individuals,  has   arrogated  to  itself  the  dignity  of 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  287 

being  the  fountain  of  all  his  rights.  It  has  made  his 
religion  for  him.  Its  will,  called  law,  has  taken  place 
of  all  other  laws.  It  has  seized  on  the  individual  as  its 
tool,  and  doomed  him  to  live  and  die  for  its  most  selfish 
purposes.  The  sacredness  of  the  individual  is  even  yet 
so  little  understood  that  the  freest  country  on  earth  is 
talking  of  war,  because  a  local  law,  enslaving  the  indi- 
vidual, is  not  recognized  by  the  whole  earth.  But  the 
nation  is  not  every  thing,  f  The  nation  is  not  the  fountain 
of  right.  Our  first  duties  are  not  to  our  country.  Our 
first  allegiance  is  not  due  to  its  laws.  We  belong  first  to 
God,  and  next  to  our  race.  We  were,  indeed,  made  for 
partial,  domestic,  and  national  ties  and  affections,  and 
these  are  essential  means  of  our  education  and  happiness 
in  this  first  stage  of  our  being  ;  but  all  these  are  to  be 
kept  in  subjection  to  the  laws  of  universal  justice  and 
humanity.  They  are  intended  to  train  us  up  to  these. 
In  these  consists  our  likeness  to  the  Divinity.  From 
these  considerations  it  will  be  seen  that  the  following 
remarks  are  not  addressed  to  bodies  politic  so  much  as 
to  individuals. 

The  Duty  of  the  Free  States  in  regard  to  slavery  may 
be  classed  under  two  heads.  First,  these  States  are 
bound  to  construe  with  the  utmost  strictness  all  the 
articles  of  the  Constitution  which  in  any  way  touch  on 
slavery,  so  that  they  may  do  nothing  in  aid  of  this  insti- 
tution but  what  is  undeniably  demanded  by  that  instru- 
ment ;  and  secondly,  they  are  bound  to  seek  earnestly 
such  amendments  of  the  Constitution  as  will  remove  this 
subject  wholly  from  the  cognizance  of  the  general  gov- 
ernment ;  such  as  will  be  just  alike  to  the  North  and 
South  ;  such  as  will  release  the  North  from  all  obliga- 
tion whatever  to  support  or  sanction  slavery,  and  as  will 


2S8  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

insure  the  South  from  all  attempts  by  the  Free  Slices  to 
stir  up  the  slaves. 

First  ;  the  Free  States  are  bound  to  confine  all  action 
in  regard  to  slavery  to  the  narrowest  limits  which  will 
satisfy  the  Constitution.  Under  this  head,  our  attention 
is  naturally  drawn  first  to  the  chief,  and  I  may  say,  the 
only  express  provision  of  the  instrument  relating  to  this 
subject.  I  refer  to  the  clause  requiring  that  a  slave 
escaping  into  the  Free  States  shall  be  delivered  up,  on 
the  claim  of  his  master.  This  provision  may  seem 
clear  ;  but  the  execution  of  it  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
accomphsh  its  end,  and  yet  to  prevent  the  encroach- 
ments of  slavery  on  the  Free  States,  is  not  easy.  The 
provision  was  designed  to  give  authority  to  the  master 
to  claim  the  fugitive  slave.  But,  in  doing  this,  a  far 
higher  good  than  the  recovery  of  a  thousand  slaves  fly- 
ing from  the  South  is  put  in  peril,  and  that  is,  the  free- 
dom of  the  colored  population  of  the  North  ;  and  we 
are  bound  to  insist  that  this  freedom  shall  be  placed 
beyond  the  reach  of  peril.  This  danger  is  not  imagi- 
nary. Kidnapping  in  the  Free  States  is  one  of  the  evils 
which  have  grown  out  of  our  connexion  with  slavery, 
and  it  has  been  carried  on  with  circumstances  of  great 
barbarity.  Thus  slavery  has  been  recruited  from  the 
North. 

The  law  of  Congress  framed  to  carry  into  effect  the 
constitutional  provision  to  which  we  have  referred  al- 
most seems  to  have  been  designed  to  give  shelter  to  this 
crime.  No  care  has  been  taken  to  shield  the  colored 
man  at  the  North.  The  slave-holder  or  slave-hunter 
may  carry  him  before  a  justice  of  the  peace  as  a  fugi- 
tive, and  may  himself  be  a  witness  in  the  case,  and  this 
tribunal  may   send  the  accused  to  perpetual  bondage. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  289 

We  all  know  how  and  by  whom  a  commission  of  justice 
of  the  peace  is  often  obtained.  We  know  that  a  claim  of 
more  than  twenty  dollars  is  not  left  to  the  decision  of  a 
justice's  court.  We  know  the  advantage  which  may  be 
enjoyed  before  such  a  magistrate  by  the  rich  slave-holder 
over  a  poor,  perhaps  friendless  laborer.  And  yet  to 
this  tribunal  it  is  given  to  pass  a  sentence  on  a  human 
being  as  terrible  as  death.  An  officer  not  trusted  with 
the  adjudication  of  property  exceeding  twenty  dollars  is 
allowed  to  make  a  man  a  slave  for  life. 

To  repair  this  great  injustice,  to  prevent  the  transpor- 
tation of  our  citizens  to  slavery,  some  of  the  State  legis- 
latures have  held  themselves  bound  to  supply  the  defi- 
ciencies of  the  law  of  Congress,  and  for  this  end  have 
referred  the  suspected  slave  to  a  higher  tribunal,  and 
given  him  the  benefit  of  trial  by  jury.  To  our  great 
sorrow,  this  State  legislation  has  been  pronounced  un- 
constitutional by  a  recent  decree  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  ;  so  that  the  colored  man  is  driven 
back  to  the  court  to  which  he  had  been  unjustly  doomed 
before.  On  this  decree  it  becomes  me  not  to  pass  sen- 
tence ;  but  one  thing  is  clear,  that  the  Free  States  are 
now  bound  to  the  most  earnest  efforts  to  protect  that 
portion  of  their  citizens  exposed  to  the  peril  of  being 
carried  into  bondage. 

The  grand  principle  to  be  laid  down  is,  that  it  is  in- 
finitely more  important  to  preserve  a  free  citizen  frona 
being  made  a  slave  than  to  send  back  a  fugitive  slave  to 
his  chain.  This  idea  is  to  rule  over  and  determine  all 
the  legislation  on  this  subject.  Let  the  fugitive  be  de- 
livered up,  but  by  such  processes  as  will  prevent  a  free- 
man from  being  delivered  up  also.  For  this  end  full 
provision  must  be  made.     On  this  point  the  Constitution, 

VOL.   VI.  25 


290  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

and  a  still  higher  law,  that  of  nature  and  God,  speak 
the  same  language  ;  and  we  must  insist  that  these  high 
authorities  shall  be  revered. 

The  Constitution  opens  with  these  memorable  words  : 
''  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form 
a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic 
tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote 
the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty 
to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish 
this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America."  It 
is  understood  and  conceded  that  this  preamble  does  not 
confer  on  the  national  government  any  powers  but  such 
as  are  specified  in  the  subsequent  articles  of  the  instru- 
ment ;  but  it  teaches,  and  was  designed  to  teach,  the  spirit 
in  which  these  powers  are  to  be  interpreted  and  brought 
into  action.  "  To  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  "  is 
enumerated  among  the  purposes  of  the  national  com- 
pact ;  and  whoever  knows  the  history  of  the  Constitution 
knows  that  this  was  the  grand  purpose  for  which  the 
powers  of  the  Constitution  were  conferred.  That  the 
liberty  of  each  man,  of  the  obscurest  man,  should  be  in- 
violate ;  this  was  the  master-thought  in  the  authors  of 
this  immortal  charter.  According  to  these  views  we 
have  a  right  to  demand  of  Congress,  as  their  highest 
constitutional  duty,  to  carry  into  the  enactment  of  every 
law  a  reverence  for  the  freedom  of  each  and  all.  A  law 
palpably  exposing  the  freeman  to  be  made  a  slave,  and 
even  rendering  his  subjection  to  this  cruel  doom  nearly 
sure,  is  one  of  the  most  unconstitutional  acts,  if  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution  be  regarded,  which  the  national 
legislature  can  commit.  The  Constitution  is  violated, 
not  only  by  the  assumption  of  powers  not  conceded,  but 
equally  by  using  conceded  powers   to   the  frustration   of 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  291 

the  end  for  which  they  were  conferred.  In  the  law 
regulating  the  dehvery  of  supposed  fugitives  the  great 
end  of  the  national  charter  is  sacrificed  to  an  accidental 
provision.  This  Constitution  was  not  established  to 
send  back  slaves  to  chains.  The  article  requiring  this 
act  of  the  Free  States  was  forced  on  them  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  times,  and  submitted  to  as  a  hard 
necessity.  It  did  not  enter  into  the  essence  of  the  in- 
strument ;  whilst  the  security  of  freedom  was  its  great, 
living,  all-pervading  idea.  We  see  the  tendency  of 
slavery  to  warp  the  Constitution  to  its  purposes  in  the 
law  for  restoring  the  flying  bondman.  Under  this  not 
a  few,  having  not  only  the  same  natural  but  legal  rights 
with  ourselves,  have  been  subjected  to  the  lash  of  the 
overseer. 

But  a  higher  law  than  the  Constitution  protests  against 
the  act  of  Congress  on  this  point.  According  to  the 
law  of  nature  no  greater  crime  against  a  human  being 
can  be  committed  than  to  make  him  a  slave.  This  is 
to  strike  a  blow  at  the  very  heart  and  centre  of  all  his 
rights  as  a  man  ;  to  put  him  beneath  his  race.  On  the 
ground  of  the  immutable  law  of  nature  our  government 
has  pronounced  the  act  of  making  a  man  a  slave  on  the 
coast  of  Africa  to  be  piracy,  a  capital  crime.  And  shall 
the  same  government  enact  or  sustain  a  law  which  ex- 
poses the  freeman  here  to  be  reduced  to  slavery,  which 
gives  facilities  to  the  unprincipled  for  accomplishing 
this  infinite  wrong  ?  And  what  is  the  end  for  which 
the  freeman  is  so  exposed  .''  It  is  that  a  man  flying 
from  an  unjust  yoke  may  be  forced  back  to  bondage,  an 
end  against  which  natural  and  divine  justice  protests  ; 
so  that,  to  confirm  and  perpetuate  one  violation  of  the 
moral  law,  another  still  greater  is  left  open  and  made 
easy  to  the  kidnapper. 


292  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

There  seems  no  need  of  enlarging  on  this  point. 
Every  man  who  enjoys  liberty  can  understand  what  it  is 
to  be  made  a  slave,  to  be  held  and  treated  as  property, 
to  be  subjected  to  arbitrary  will,  to  arbitrary  punishment, 
to  the  loss  of  wife  and  child,  at  another's  pleasure. 
Every  man  knows  what  he  would  feel  at  having  a  son  or 
a  daughter  torn  from  him  and  sent  to  slavery.  And  lib- 
erty is  not  a  whit  dearer  to  us  than  it  is  to  a  human 
brother  whose  only  misfortune  it  is  to  wear  a  darker 
skin.  We  are  bound  to  extend  to  him  the  same  protec- 
tion of  law  as  to  our  own  child. 

To  condemn  a  man  to  perpetual  slavery  is  as  solemn 
a  sentence  as  to  condemn  him  to  death.  Before  being 
thus  doomed  he  has  a  right  to  all  the  means  of  defence 
which  are  granted  to  a  man  who  is  tried  for  his  life.  All 
the  rules,  forms,  solemnities  by  which  innocence  is  se- 
cured from  being  confounded  with  guilt  he  has  a  right 
to  demand.  In  the  present  case  the  principle  is  emi- 
nently applicable,  that  many  guilty  should  escape  rather 
than  that  one  innocent  man  should  suffer  ;  because  the 
guilt  of  running  away  from  an  "  owner  "  is  of  too  faint  a 
color  to  be  seen  by  some  of  the  best  eyes,  whilst  that  of 
enslaving  the  free  is  of  the  darkest  hue. 

The  Constitution  provides  that  no  man  shall  "  be  de- 
prived of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process 
of  law."  A  man  delivered  up  as  a  slave  is  deprived  of 
all  property,  all  liberty,  and  placed  in  a  condition  where 
life  and  limb  are  held  at  another's  pleasure.  Does  he 
enjoy  the  benefits  of  "  a  due  process  of  law,"  when  a 
common  justice  of  the  peace,  selected  by  the  master, 
and  receiving  the  master  as  a  witness,  passes  sentence 
on  him  without  jury  and  without  appeal  .'' 

It  is  of  great  importance  that  a  new  and  satisfactory 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  29S 

law  on  this  subject  should  be  passed  by  Congress.  It  is 
a  serious  evil  to  perpetuate  legislation  against  which  the 
moral  sense  of  the  community  protests.  In  this  country 
public  opinion  is  the  strength  of  the  laws,  is  the  grand 
force  with  which  the  public  authorities  must  surround 
themselves.  The  present  law  for  the  recovery  of  fu- 
gitive slaves  is  reprobated,  not  by  the  passions,  but  by 
the  deliberate  moral  judgments  of  large  portions  of  the 
Free  States  ;  and  such  being  the  case,  it  cannot  be  ex- 
ecuted. There  are  a  thousand  ways  of  evading  it  with- 
out force.  In  some  parts  of  the  country,  I  fear,  it 
might  be  resisted  by  force,  should  its  execution  be 
urged  ;  and  although  a  law  demanded  by  justice  should 
never  be  yielded  to  the  fear  of  tumult  ;  though  we  ought 
to  encounter  violence  rather  than  make  a  sacrifice  of 
duty  ;  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  most  unwise  to 
uphold  a  palpably  unrighteous  law,  which  by  its  un- 
righteousness endangers  the  public  peace.  In  such  a 
case  the  chief  responsibility  for  the  danger  rests  on  the 
obstinacy  of  the  legislator.  The  appointed  guardian  of 
social  order  proves  its  foe. 

A  trial  by  jury  ought  to  be  granted  to  the  suspected 
fugitive,  as  being  the  most  effectual  provision  for  inno- 
cence known  to  our  laws.  It  is  said,  that,  under  such 
a  process,  the  slave  will  not  be  restored  to  his  master. 
Undoubtedly  the  jury  is  an  imperfect  tribunal,  and  may 
often  fail  of  a  wise  and  just  administration  of  the  laws. 
But,  as  we  have  seen,  the  first  question  to  be  asked  is, 
How  shall  the  freeman  be  preserved  from  being  sen- 
tenced to  slavery  ?  This  is  an  infinitely  greater  evil 
than  the  escape  of  the  fugitive  ;  and  to  avert  this,  a  trial 
by  jury  should  be  granted,  unless  some  other  process 
as  safe  and  effectual  can  be  devised. 
25* 


294  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATE& 

In  these  remarks  I  would  not  intimate  that  the  slave- 
holders  as  a  body  desire  a  loose  law,  which  will  place 
the  innocent  at  their  mercy,  in  order  to  be  kidnappers. 
The  South  is  as  incapable  of  this  baseness  as  the  P\orth. 
But  in  both  regions  there  are  too  many  men  profligate 
enough  to  use  such  a  law  for  the  perpetration  of  the 
greatest  crime.  We  know  that  the  existing  law  has 
been  so  used  that  the  facilities  and  tem.ptations  which  it 
ministers  to  the  grossest  violation  of  right  have  whetted 
cupidity  and  instigated  to  cruelty.  Then  it  must  be 
changed. 

The  slave-holder  must  not  say  that  a  change  will 
annul  his  claim  on  the  flying  slave.  He  ought  to  con- 
sider, that,  in  insisting  on  processes  for  enforcing  his 
claim  which  cannot  but  result  in  enslaving  the  free,  he 
virtually  enrols  himself  among  kidnappers.  Siill  more, 
he  should  understand  that  his  only  chance  of  asserting 
his  claim  rests  on  the  establishment  of  such  a  law  as 
will  secure  the  rights  of  the  colored  man  of  the  Free 
States.  There  is  a  jealousy  on  this  point  among  us, 
which,  as  it  is  righteous,  must  be  respected.  It  is  a 
spreading  jealousy,  and  will  obstruct  more  and  more 
the  operation  of  the  existing  law.  It  must  not  be 
spoken  of  as  a  fever  which  has  reached  its  height.  It 
is  a  sign  of  returning  moral  health,  and  its  progress  will 
be  aided  by  perseverance  in  immoral  means  of  reclaim- 
ing the  flying  slave. 

Having  shown  how  the  Free  States  are  bound  to  con- 
strue the  clause  of  the  Constitution  relating  to  fugitive 
slaves,  or,  rather,  "  persons  held  to  service  in  other 
States,"  I  proceed,  in  the  second  place,  to  show  the 
strict  construction  which  should  be  given  to  those  parts 
of  the  Constitution  under  which  the  general  government 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  295 

has  been  led  to  take  slavery  into  its  protection,  in  Us 
intercourse  with  foreign  nations.  This  agency  is  be- 
lieved to  be  wholly  without  warrant  ;  and  it  threatens  so 
to  extend  itself,  and  to  disturb  so  much  our  relations 
with  foreign  states,  that  we  are  bound,  not  only  by  con- 
siderations of  morality,  but  of  our  essential  interests,  to 
reduce  it  within  the  precise  limits  of  the  Constitution. 

By  this  instrument  the  powers  of  declaring  war,  ap- 
pointing ambassadors,  raising  armies,  and  making  treaties 
are  conferred  on  the  national  government.  The  protec- 
tion of  our  rights  against  foreign  powers  was  undoubted- 
ly a  principal  end  of  the  Union.  Every  part  of  the 
country  expects  and  requires  it  ''to  provide  for  the 
common  defence."  But  it  is  plain  that  this  duty  of  the 
national  government,  to  watch  over  our  rights  abroad, 
cannot  go  beyond  those  rights.  It  cannot  seek  redress 
but  for  wrongs  inflicted  by  foreign  powers.  To  insist 
on  groundless,  unreasonable  claims  is  an  unwarrantable 
abuse  of  power  ;  and  to  put  in  peril  our  national  peace 
by  assertion  of  these  is  to  violate  at  once  the  national 
charter,  and  the  higher  law  of  universal  justice  and 
good-will. 

The  grand  principle  to  be  adopted  by  the  North  is 
this,  that,  because  certain  States  of  this  Union  see  fit  to 
pronounce  certain  human  beings  within  their  territory  to 
be  property,  foreign  nations  are  not  bound  to  regard  and 
treat  these  persons  as  property,  when  brought  within 
their  jurisdiction.  Of  consequence,  the  national  govern- 
ment has  no  claim  on  foreign  governments  in  regard  to 
slaves  carried  beyond  the  limits  of  the  South  and  found 
in  other  countries.  The  master  has  no  authority  over 
them  in  a  foreign  land.  They  appear  there  as  men. 
They  have  rights  there  as  real,  as  sacred,  as  the  country 


296  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

has  from  which  they  came,  and  these  must  on  no  account 
be  sported  with. 

The  rights  of  the  individual  he  at  the  *^ery  foundation 
of  civil  society  ;  and  society,  truly  constituted,  confirms, 
instead  of  taking  them  away.  The  simple  idea  of  a  na- 
tion is,  that  it  is  the  union  of  a  multitude  to  establish  and 
enforce  laws  for  the  protection  of  every  right.  A  nation 
is  not  to  depart  from  this,  its  true  idea,  its  primitive  end, 
and  deny  to  human  beings  entering  its  borders  the  com- 
mon rights  of  humanity,  because  these  men  have  been 
seized  in  another  part  of  the  world  and  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  chattels  or  brutes.  One  injustice  does  not 
induce  the  necessity  of  another.  Because  a  man  is 
wronged  in  one  place,  it  does  not  follow  that  he  must  be 
wronged  everywhere.  A  particular  state  cannot  by  its 
form  of  legislation  bind  the  whole  earth  to  become  par- 
takers with  it  in  a  crime.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  fact 
of  a  man's  having  been  injured  on  one  spot  w^ere  rather 
a  reason  for  his  enjoying  peculiar  protection  elsewhere. 

The  local,  municipal  law  which  ordains  slavery  in  a 
state  does  not  make  it  just,  does  not  make  man  rightful 
property,  even  in  the  particular  country  where  it  is  es- 
tablished. This  law,  however,  is  to  be  respected  in  a 
certain  sense  by  foreign  nations.  These  must  not  enter 
the  slave-holding  country  to  enforce  emancipation.  But, 
in  thus  restraining  themselves,  they  acknowledge  no 
moral  right  in  the  master,  no  moral  validity  in  the  law 
declaring  man  property.  They  act  simply  on  the  prin- 
ciple, that  one  nation  is  not  to  intermeddle  with  the 
legislation  of  another,  be  it  wise  or  foolish,  just  or  unjust. 
Foreign  nations  are  not  to  touch  a  law  creating  slavery 
in  a  particular  country,  because  they  touch  none  of  the 
Jaws  there.     If  that  country  choose  to  ordain  polygamy, 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  297 

as  in  the  Eastern  world,  or  stealing,  as  in  Sparta,  or 
prostitution,  as  in  some  established  religions  of  antiquity, 
no  other  nations  can  interfere  to  repeal  these  ordinances. 
But,  because  unmolested  in  the  place  of  their  birth,  are 
these  institutions  to  be  carried  beyond  it,  to  be  regarded 
as  sacred  by  other  governments,  and  not  only  to  be  al- 
lowed, but  to  be  enforced  in  foreign  regions  ?  Shall  a 
Mahometan  country  hold  itself  wronged  and  declare 
war,  because  one  of  its  subjects,  carrying  with  him  a 
hundred  wives,  cannot  set  up  a  harem  in  a  Christian 
country,  or  cannot  receive  the  aid  and  succour  of  the 
authorities  of  a  foreign  port  in  recovering  fifty  of  his 
women  who  had  found  their  way  to  the  shore  ?  Are 
the  tribunals  of  a  country  to  lend  themselves  to  the  exe- 
cution of  foreign  laws  which  are  opposed  to  its  own,  and 
which,  not  only  its  policy,  but  its  religion  and  moral 
sepse  condemn  ? 

^The  sura  of  these  remarks  is,  that  slavery  is  not  to  be 
spoken  of  as  recognized  in  any  sense  whatever  by  na- 
tions which  disclaim  it  ;  that  to  them  it  does  not  exist  as 
a  right  anywhere  ;  that  in  their  own  jurisdiction  it  can- 
not exist  as  a  fact ;  and  from  these  views  it  follows  that 
no  nation,  allowing  or  ordaining  slavery  within  its  limits, 
has  a  right  to  demand  any  recognition  of  it  in  any  shape 
or  degree  beyond  its  own  borders,  y  To  attempt  to  pro- 
tect it  or  to  require  protection  for  it  in  the  ports  of  an- 
other country  is  to  set  up  not  merely  a  groundless,  but 
an  iniquitous  claim.  To  charge  another  country  with 
wrong-doing  for  not  aiding  us  to  retain  this  property  is 
to  do  wrong  ourselves,  and  to  offer  an  insult  to  a  more 
righteous  community. 

The  Constitution,  then,  which  commits  to  the  national 
authorities    the   maintenance    of  our   rights    abroad,   is 


298  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

transcended,  its  powers  are  unwarrantably  stretched, 
when  the  government  goes  abroad  to  claim  respect  in 
any  form  or  degree  to  the  slave-laws  of  a  part  of  this 
country,  or  when  it  introduces  slavery  at  all  as  a  matter 
of  controversy  into  our  discussions  with  foreign  powers. 
To  these  slavery  does  not  exist.  In  their  own  sphere 
they  do  not  become  accountable  to  us  by  utter  disregard 
of  the  slave-laws  of  the  South,  or  by  refusing  to  see  any 
thing  but  men  in  the  slaves  of  that  region,  when  carried 
by  any  means  whatever  within  their  bounds.  Slavery 
is  a  word  which  should  never  be  uttered  between  us  and 
foreign  states.  It  is  as  local  a  matter  as  the  licensing  of 
gambling  houses  at  New  Orleans,  and  can  with  no  more 
fitness  be  made  a  matter  of  diplomacy.  It  is  we  who 
are  guilty  of  encroachment,  when  we  deny  the  right  of 
other  nations  to  follow  their  own  laws,  rather  than  ours, 
within  their  own  limits,  and  to  regard  as  men  all  human 
beings  who  enter  their  ports. 

When  we  look  into  the  Constitution,  we  see  not  one 
express  obligation  imposed  in  regard  to  slavery.  "Per- 
sons held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State  under  the  laws 
thereof,"  and  who  escape  from  it,  are  to  be  restored. 
This  language,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  first  part  of  this 
Tract,  was  adopted  to  exclude  the  recognition  of  the 
lawfulness  of  slavery  "  in  a  moral  point  of  view."  The 
Constitution,  in  requiring  the  surrender  of  slaves  in  one 
case  only,  leaves  them  in  all  other  cases  to  come  under 
the  operation  of  the  laws  of  the  Free  States,  when  found 
within  the  limits  of  the  same.  Does  not  the  Constitu- 
tion, then,  plainly  expect  that  slaves  from  the  South,  if 
carried  into  foreign  ports,  will  fall  under  the  operation 
of  the  laws  established  there  ? 

There  is  still  another  view.     Slavery  is  limited  in  this 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  299 

country  to  one  region.  In  the  rest  of  the  country  it  does 
not  exist  ;  and,  still  more,  it  is  regarded  as  a  violation  of 
the  law  of  nature  and  of  God.  Now  the  general  govern- 
ment, when  it  calls  on  foreign  nations  to  respect  the 
claims  of  the  slave-holder,  speaks  in  the  name,  not  mere- 
ly of  the  Slave  States,  hut  of  the  Free  ;  in  the  name  of 
the  whole  people.  And  ought  the  whole  people  to  be 
thus  committed  to  the  cause  of  slavery,  unless  an  un- 
doubted, unequivocal  obligation  is  imposed  on  them  by 
the  Constitution  to  assume  its  defence  ^  unless  a  clear 
case  can  be  made  out  against  the  Free  States  ^  The 
Constitution  is  to  be  explained  in  part  by  the  known 
views  of  its  authors.  We  have  seen  how  slow  they 
were  to  recognize  a  moral  right  in  slavery.  Did  they 
intend  that  we  should  assert  its  claims  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  .'' 

It  is  true  the  national  government  has  interfered  to 
claim  slaves  thrown  on  a  foreign  shore,  and  this  consid- 
eration is  of  weight.  But  in  so  grave  an  affair  it  does 
not  decide  the  constitutional  question.  That  the  admin- 
istration of  the  national  government  has  been  unduly 
swayed  by  the  slave-holding  portion  of  the  country  we 
of  the  North  believe.  That  under  this  influence  an  un- 
warrantable extension  of  constitutional  powers  has  taken 
place  is  very  conceivable.  False  interpretations  of  such 
an  instrument,  which  favor  the  interests  of  one  part  of 
the  people  without  apparently  touching  the  rest  of  the 
community,  easily  steal  into  the  public  policy.  Time 
alone  exposes  them,  and  time  ought  not  to  be  alleged  as 
a  reason  for  their  continuance. 

In  interpreting  the  Constitution  it  is  not  only  necessary 
to  consult  the  history  of  the  period  of  its  formation,  but 
to  apply  to   it  the   principles   of  universal  justice.     Its 


300  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  CTATES. 

authors  honored  these,  and  did  not  intend  to  estabh'sh  a 
government  in  hostility  to  them.  They  acted  in  the 
spirit  of  reverence  for  human  rights.  This  is  eminently 
the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  by  this  it  should  be 
construed.  Doubtful  articles  should  receive  an  inter- 
pretation which  will  bring  them  into  harmony  with  the 
immutable  laws  of  duty.  Any  other  construction  vir- 
tually falls  to  the  ground.  It  is  of  no  force,  for  it  cannot 
shake  the  authority  of  God.  On  these  principles  we 
maintain  that  the  Constitution  does  not  and  cannot  bind 
the  government  to  demand  from  the  whole  human  race 
respect  to  the  municipal  law  of  Southern  slavery. 

This  topic  is  not  a  merely  speculative  one,  but  of 
great  practical  importance.  Our  honor  as  a  people  is 
involved  in  the  construction  of  the  Constitution  now 
pleaded  for.  This  is  not  the  day  for  setting  up  preten- 
sions in  favor  of  slavery,  for  demanding  from  the  whole 
civilized  world  succour  and  countenance  in  enforcing  our 
property  in  man.  We  disgrace  ourselves  in  sending 
abroad  ministers  on  such  a  message.  We  should  regard 
our  character  too  much  to  thrust  the  deformity  and 
stench  of  slavery  into  the  eyes  and  nostrils  of  the  world. 
We  should  regard  too  much  the  reputation  of  honorable 
men,  who  represent  us  in  foreign  countries,  to  employ 
them  in  this  low  work.  An  American,  alive  to  his  coun- 
try's honor,  cannot  easily  bear  this  humiliation  abroad. 
It  is  enough,  that,  in  our  private  intercourse  with  foreign- 
ers, we  are  set  down  as  citizens  of  a  slave-holding  coun- 
try. But  we  need  not  and  ought  not  to  hold  up  our 
shame  in  the  blaze  of  courts,  in  the  high  places  of  the 
world.  We  ought  not  industriously  to  invite  men  every- 
where to  inspect  our  wounds  and  ulcers.  Let  us  keep 
our   dishonor  at   home.     The    Free    Slates    especially 


THE  DJTTY  OF  THE  FREE  CTATES.  301 

should  shrink  from  this  exposure.  They  should  insist 
that  slavery  shall  be  a  Slate  interest,  not  a  national  con- 
cern ;  that  this  brand  shall  not  be  fixed  on  our  diplo- 
macy, on  our  foreign  policy  ;  that  the  name  of  American 
shall  not  become  synonymous  everywhere  with  op- 
pression. 

But  something  more  than  dishonor  is  to  be  feared,  if 
our  government  shall  persevere  in  its  efforts  for  main- 
taining the  claims  of  slave-holders  in  foreign  countries. 
Such  claims,  if  asserted  in  earnest,  must  issue  in  war, 
for  they  cannot  be  acceded  to.  England  has  taken  her 
ground  on  this  matter  ;  so  ought  the  Free  States.  On 
this  point  we  ought  to  speak  plainly,  unconditionally, 
without  softening  language.  We  ought  to  say  to  the 
South,  to  Congress,  to  the  world  :  "  We  will  not  fight 
for  slavery.  We  can  die  for  Truth,  for  Justice,  for 
Rights.  ^Ve  will  not  die,  or  inflict  death,  in  support  of 
wrongs."^  In  truth,  this  spirit,  this  determination,  exists 
now  so  extensively  in  the  Free  States  that  it  is  utterly 
impossible  for  a  war  to  be  carried  on  in  behalf  of  slavery  ; 
and  such  being  the  fact,  all  diplomacy  in  its  behalf  be- 
comes a  mockery.  It  is  a  disgraceful  show  for  no  pos- 
sible benefit.  Even  could  war  be  declared  for  this  end, 
the  deep  moral  feeling  of  a  large  part  of  the  community 
would  rob  it  of  all  energy,  and  would  insure  defeat  and 
shame.  Bad  as  we  think  men,  they  cannot  fight  against 
their  consciences.  The  physical  nature  finds  its  strength 
in  the  moral.  The  rudest  soldiers  are  sustained  by  die 
idea  of  acting  under  some  lawful  authority  ;  and  on  this 
account  have  an  advantage  over  pirates,  who  either 
cower,  or  abandon  themselves  to  a  desperation  which, 
by  robbing  them  of  a  guiding  intelligence,  makes  them 
an  easier  prey.     In  proportion  as  a  people  become  en- 

voL.  VI.  26 


302  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

lightened,  and  especially  in  proportion  as  they  recognize 
the  principles  of  Christianity,  it  is  harder  to  drive  them 
into  a  war.  The  moral  sense,  which  in  an  ignorant  age 
or  community  is  easily  blinded,  cannot  in  their  case  be 
imposed  on  without  much  skilful  sophistry.  They  take 
the  justice  of  a  war  less  and  less  on  trust.  They  must 
see  that  they  have  right  on  their  side,  or  they  are  no 
match  for  a  foe.  This  country  has  the  best  materials 
for  an  army  in  a  righteous  cause,  and  the  worst  in  a 
wicked  one.  No  martial  law  could  drive  us  to  battle  for 
the  slave-holder's  claim  to  the  aid  or  countenance  of 
foreign  powers.  We  could  not  fight  in  such  a  quarrel. 
Our  "hands  would  hang  down"  as  truly  as  if  loaded 
with  material  chains.  To  fight  for  a  cause  at  which  we 
blush  !  for  a  cause  which  conscience  protests  against ! 
for  a  cause  on  which  we  dare  not  ask  the  blessing  of 
God  !  The  thing  is  impossible.  Our  moral  sympathies 
would  desert  to  our  foe.  We  should  honor  him  for  not 
suffering  a  slave  to  tread  his  soil.  God  keep  us  from 
being  plunged  into  a  war  of  any  kind  !  But  if  the  evil 
is  to  be  borne,  let  us  have,  at  least,  the  consolation  that 
our  blood  is  shed  for  undoubted  rights  ;  that  we  have 
truth,  justice,  honor  on  our  side  ;  that  religion,  freedom, 
and  humanity  are  not  leagued  with  our  foe. 

"  Thrice  is  he  armed  who  hath  his  quarrel  just, 
And  he  but  naked,  though  locked  up  in  steel, 
Whose  conscience  with  injustice  is  corrupted." 

T  proceed,  in  the  third  place,  to  another  topic,  which 
will  complete  my  remarks  on  the  Duties  of  the  Free 
States  in  relation  to  slavery  under  the  present  provisions 
of  the  Constitution.  These  States  are  bound  to  insist 
on  the  abolition  of  slavery  and   the  slave-trade  in  the 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  303 

District  of  Columbia.  Their  power  in  this  regard  is 
unquestionable.  To  Congress  is  committed  exclusively 
the  government  of  the  District,  and  it  is  committed  with- 
out any  restrictions.  In  this  sphere  of  its  action  the 
general  government  has  no  limitations,  but  those  which 
are  found  in  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  and  of 
universal  justice.  The  power  of  abolishing  slavery  in 
the  District  is  a  rightful  one,  and  must  be  lodged  some- 
where, and  can  be  exercised  by  Congress  alone.  And 
this  authority  ought  not  to  sleep. 

Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  is  not  Southern 
slavery.  It  has  no  local  character.  It  is  the  slavery  of 
the  United  States  !  It  belongs  equally  to  the  free  and  to 
the  slave-holding  portion  of  the  country.  It  is  our  insti- 
tution as  truly  as  if  it  were  planted  in  the  midst  of  us  ; 
for  this  District  is  the  common  ground  of  the  nation. 
Its  institutions  exist  solely  by  authority  of  the  nation. 
They  are  as  truly  expressions  of  the  national  will  as  any 
acts  of  Congress  whatever.  We  all  uphold  the  slave- 
code  under  which  men  are  bought  and  sold  and  whipped 
at  their  masters'  pleasure.  Every  slave-auction  in  the 
District  is  held  under  our  legislation.  We  are  even  told 
that  the  prison  of  the  District  is  used  for  the  safe-keep- 
ing of  the  slaves  who  are  brought  there  for  sale.  In  the 
former  part  of  these  remarks  I  said  that  the  Free  States 
had  no  participation  in  this  evil.  I  forgot  the  District 
of  Columbia.  There  we  sustain  it  as  truly  as  we  sup- 
port the  navy  or  army.  It  ought,  then,  to  be  abolished  at 
once.  And  in  urging  this  action  we  express  no  hostility 
towards  Southern  institutions.  We  do  not  think  of  the 
South.  We  see  within  a  spot  under  our  jurisdiction  a 
great  wrong  sustained  by  law.  For  this  law  we  are  re- 
sponsible.    For  all  its  fruits  vve  must  give  account.    We 


304  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

owe,  then,  to  God,  to  conscience,  to  rectitude,  our  best 
efforts  for  its  abofition.  We  have  no  thought  of  hmiiing 
Southern  institutions.  It  is  our  own  unjust,  unhallowed 
institution  which  we  resolve  no  longer  to  maintain.  Can 
the  Free  States  consent  to  continue  their  partnership  in 
this  wrong  .''  They  have  not  even  the  poor  consolation 
of  profiting  by  the  ciime.  The  handful  of  slaves  in  the 
District  may  be  of  some  worth  to  a  few  masters,  but 
are  utterly  insignificant  in  their  relation  to  the  country. 
They  might  be  bought  by  the  government  and  set  free 
at  less  expense  than  is  incurred  in  passing  many  an  act 
of  Congress. 

Emancipation  in  the  present  case  is  opposed  by  the 
South,  not  on  account  of  any  harm  to  be  endured  by 
the  District  or  the  country,  but  simply  because  this 
measure  would  be  a  public,  formal  utterance  of  the  moral 
conviction  of  the  Free  States  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
Our  case  is  a  hard  one  indeed.  We  are  required  to 
support  what  we  abhor,  because  by  withdrawing  our 
support  we  shall  express  our  abhorrence  of  it.  We 
must  go  on  sinning,  lest  we  become  witnesses  against 
sin.  Could  we  root  slavery  out  of  the  District  without 
declaring  it  to  be  evil,  emancipation  would  be  compara- 
tively easy  ;  but  we  are  required  to  sustain  it,  because 
we  think  it  evil,  and  must  not  show  our  thoughts.  We 
must  cling  to  a  wrong,  because  our  associates  at  the 
South  will  not  consent  to  the  reproof  implied  in  our  de- 
sertion of  it.  And  can  it  be  that  we  are  so  wanting  in 
moral  principle  and  force  as  to  yield  to  these  passionate 
partners  ?  Is  not  our  path  clear  ?  Can  any  thing  au- 
thorize us  to  sanction  slavery  by  solemn  acts  of  legisla- 
tion ?  Are  any  violations  of  right  so  iniquitous  as  those 
which  are  perpetrated  by  law,  by  that  function  of  sov- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  305 

ereignty  which  has  the  maintenance  of  right  for  its  foun- 
dation and  end  ?  Can  it  be  that  the  Free  States  send 
their  most  illustrious  men  to  Congress  to  set  their  seal 
to  slavery  ?  that  the  national  government,  intended  to 
be  the  centre  of  what  is  most  august  and  imposing  in 
our  land,  should  be  turned  into  a  legislature  of  a  slave- 
district,  and  should  put  forth  its  vast  povvers  in  sustain- 
ing a  barbarous  slave-code  ?  Tf  this  must  be,  then  does 
it  not  seem  fit,  that  the  national  eagle  should  add  the 
vi^hip  of  the  overseer  to  the  arrows  and  olive-branch 
which  he  now  grasps  in  his  talons  ? 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  District  of  Columbia  is  not 
only  tainted  with  slavery,  but  it  is  a  great,  I  believe  the 
greatest,  slave-market  in  our  country.  To  this  human 
beings  are  driven  as  cattle  ;  driven  sometimes,  if  not 
often,  in  chains.  It  is  even  reported  that  the  slave- 
coffle  is  sometimes  headed  by  the  flag  of  the  United 
States.  To  this  spot,  the  metropolis  of  our  nation,  are 
brought  multitudes  of  our  fellov>^-creatures,  torn  from 
their  homes  by  force  and  for  others'  gain,  and  heart- 
stricken  by  the  thought  of  birth-place  and  friends  to  be 
seen  no  more.  Here  women  are  widowed  and  children 
made  orphans,  whilst  the  husband  and  the  parent  still 
live.  A  more  cruel  minister  than  death  has  been  at 
w^ork  in  their  forsaken  huts.  These  wronged  fellow- 
beings  are  then  set  up  for  sale,  and  w^omen,  as  well  as 
men,  are  subjected  to  an  examination  like  that  which 
draught-horses  undergo  at  an  auction.  That  the  seat 
of  the  national  government  should  be  made  a  mart  for 
this  shameful  traffic  is  not  to  be  endured.  On  this  point 
some  deference  is  due  to  the  Free  States  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  country.  The  spot  on  which  we  all  meet 
as  equals,  and  which  is  equally  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
26* 


306  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

all,  ought  to  be  kept  clean  from  a  trade  which  the  ma- 
jority think  inhuman  and  a  disgrace  to  the  land.  On 
this  point  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  constitutional 
power  of  Congress.  That  body  may  certainly  remove  a 
nuisance  from  a  spot  which  is  subject  to  its  unrestricted 
authority.  A  common  township  may  abate  nuisances. 
In  many  of  the  States  the  municipal  authorities  may 
prohibit,  if  they  see  fit,  the  sale  of  ardent  spirits  within 
their  hmits.  Congress  may  certainly  say,  that  the  "  ten- 
miles  square  "  ceded  to  the  United  States  shall  not  be 
a  market  for  slaves.  Washington  holds  a  peculiar  re- 
lation to  the  country.  Foreigners  repair  to  it  as  the 
spot  in  which  to  observe  our  institutions.  That  slavery, 
our  chief  stain,  should  be  exposed  most  ostentatiously 
at  the  seat  of  government  is  a  violation  of  national  de- 
cency, a  sign  of  moral  obtuseness,  of  insensibility  to 
the  moral  judgment  of  mankind,  which  ought  immedi- 
ately to  cease. 

I  have  now  spoken  of  the  Duties  of  the  Free  States 
under  the  Constitution  as  it  now  exists.  I  proceed  to  a 
still  higher  duty  incumbent  on  them,  which  is,  to  seek 
earnestly  and  resolutely  for  such  amendments  of  the 
Constitution  as  shall  entirely  release  them  from  the  obli- 
gation of  yielding  support  in  any  way  or  degree  to  slav- 
ery, and  shall  so  determine  the  relation  between  the 
Free  and  Slave  States  as  to  put  an  end  to  all  colhsion 
on  this  subject. 

This  I  have  said  is  a  Duty,  and  as  such  it  should  be 
constantly  regarded.  The  Free  States  should  act  in  it 
with  the  calmness  and  inflexibleness  of  Principle,  avoid- 
ing on  the  one  hand  passionateness,  vehemence,  invec- 
tive, and  on   the  other  a  spirit  of  expediency.     It  is  a 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE   STATES.  307 

question,  not  of  interest,  but  of  Rights,  and  consequent- 
ly above  expediency.  Happily,  interest  and  duty  go 
together  in  this  matter  ;  and  were  it  not  so,  our  first 
homage  should  be  paid  to  the  Right.  The  Free  States 
should  say,  calmly,  but  firmly,  to  the  South  :  "  We 
cannot  participate  in  slavery.  It  is  yours,  wholly  and 
exclusively.  On  you  alone  the  responsibility  rests. 
You  must  maintain  and  defend  it  by  your  own  arms. 
As  respects  slavery  we  are  distinct  communities,  as 
truly  as  in  respect  to  institutions  for  the  support-  of  the 
poor  or  for  the  education  of  our  children.  Your  slavery 
is  no  national  concern.  The  nation  must  know  nothing 
of  it,  must  do  nothing  in  reference  to  it.  We  will  not 
touch  your  slaves,  to  free  or  restore  them.  Our  pow- 
ers in  the  State  or  National  Governments  shall  not  be 
used  to  destroy  or  to  uphold  your  peculiar  institutions. 
(Ve  only  ask  such  modifications  of  the  national  charter 
as  shall  set  us  free  from  ail  obligation  to  uphold  what 
we  condemn.  In  regard  to  slavery,  the  line  between 
the  Slave  and  the  Free  States  is  a  great  gulf.  You 
must  not  pass  it  to  enforce  your  supposed  rights  as 
slave-holders,  nor  will  we  cross  it  to  annul  or  violate 
the  laws  on  which  this  evil  system  rests." 

The  reasons  for  thus  modifying  the  Constitution  are 
numerous.  The  first  has  been  again  and  again  intimat- 
ed. The  moral  sentiment  of  the  North  demands  it. 
Since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  a  new  state  of 
mind  in  regard  to  slavery  has  spread  through  the  civil- 
ized world.  It  is  not  of  American  growth  only,  but 
subsists  and  acts  more  powerfully  abroad  than  at  home. 
Slavery,  regarded  formerly  as  a  question  of  great  inter- 
est, is  now  a  question  of  conscience.  Vast  numbers  in 
the  Free    States   cannot   without  self-reproach  give    it 


308  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

sanction  or  aid.  From  many  family  altars  the  prayer 
rises  to  God  for  our  brethren  in  bonds.  The  anti- 
slavery  principle  finds  utterance  in  our  churches,  by  our 
firesides,  and  in  our  public  meetings.  Now  the  Consti- 
tution ought  to  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the  moral 
convictions  of  the  people.  A  government  resisting  these 
deprives  itself  of  its  chief  support.  If  w^e  were  to  call 
on  the  South  for  a  modification  of  the  Constitution,  un- 
der the  influence  of  any  private  motives,  any  interests, 
any  passions,  we  ought  not  to  be  heard.  But  the  slave- 
holders, as  men  of  principle  and  of  honor,  should  shrink 
from  asking  us  to  do  what  we  deliberately  and  conscien- 
tiously condemn.  Allow  it,  that  our  moral  sense  is  too 
scrupulous.  We  must  still  reverence  and  obey  it.  We 
have  no  higher  law  than  our  conviction  of  duty.  We 
ought  especially  not  to  be  asked  to  resist  it  in  a  case 
like  the  present,  when  our  conscience  is  in  unison  with 
the  conscience  of  the  civilized  world.  Christendom  re- 
sponds to  our  reprobation  of  slavery  ;  and  can  we  be 
expected  to  surrender  our  principles  to  a  handful  of  men 
personally  interested  in  the  evil  ?  We  say  to  the  South: 
"  We  are  willing  to  be  joined  with  you  as  a  nation  for 
weal  or  for  v.^oe.  We  reach  to  you  the  hand  of  fellow- 
ship. We  ask  but  one  thing  ;  do  not  require  us  to  sur- 
render what  is  dearer  than  life  or  nation,  our  sense  of 
duty,  our  loyalty  to  conscience  and  God."  Will  an 
honorable  people  demand  this  sacrifice  from  us  ?  Great 
deference  is  due  to  the  moral  sense  of  a  community. 
This  should  take  rank  above  political  considerations. 
To  ask  a  people  to  trifle  with  and  slight  it  is  to  invite 
them  to  self-degradation.  No  profit  can  repay  their 
loss,  no  accession  of  power  can  hide  their  shame. 

Another  reason    for    modifying  the  Constitution,   so 


THE   DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  309 

that  slavery  shall  be  wholly  excluded  from  the  class   of 
national  objects,  is  found   in   the  fact,  that  this   interest, 
if  allowed  to  sustain   itself  by  the  national  arm,  will  in- 
tertwine itself  more  and  more  with  public  measures,  and 
will  color  our  whole  pohcy,  so  that  the  Free  States  will 
be  more  and  more  compelled  to  link  themselves  wuh  its 
support.     Could  the  agency  of  the  government   in  re- 
gard to  this  subject  be  rigidly  defined,  the  evil  would  be 
more  tolerable.      But  it  is  natural  that  the  Slave-holding 
States  should  seek  to  make  the  national  power  as  far  as 
possible  a  buttress  of  their  "  pecuhar   institution."     It 
is  as  slave-holders,  rather  than  as  Americans,  that  they 
stand  in  Congress  ;  slavery  must  be  secured,  whatever 
befall  other  interests  of  the   country.      The   people   of 
the   North   little   understand  what    the  national  govern- 
ment has  done   for  the   ''peculiar   institution"    of  the 
South.     It  has  been,  and  is,  the  friend   of  the    slave- 
holder, and  the  enemy  of  the  slave.     The  national  gov- 
ernment authorizes  not  only  the   apprehension  and   im- 
prisonment in  the    District    of  Columbia  of  a    colored 
man  suspected  of  being  a  runaway,  but  the  sale  of  him 
as  a  slave,  if  within  a  certain  time  he  cannot  prove  his 
freedom.      The  national  government  has  endeavoured  to 
obtain  by  negotiation   the   restoration  of  fugitive  slaves, 
who  had   sought  and  found  freedom  in  Canada,  and  has 
offered  in  return  to  restore  fugitives  from  the  West   In- 
dies.    It  has  disgraced  itself,  in  the  view  of  all  Europe, 
by  claiming,   as   property,  slaves  who   have  been   ship- 
wrecked on   the   British   islands,   and  who  by  touching 
British  soil  had  become  free.     It  has  instructed  its  rep- 
resentative at  Madrid  to  announce  to  the  Spanish   Court 
"  that  the  emancipation  of  the  slave  population  of  Cuba 
would  be  very  severely  felt  in  the  adjacent  shores  of  the 


310  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

United  States."  It  has  purchased  a  vast  unsettled  ter- 
ritory which  it  has  given  up  to  be  overrun  with  slavery. 
Are  we  willing  that  the  national  power,  in  which  all  the 
States  have  a  common  interest  and  share,  and  for  the 
use  of  which  we  are  all  responsible,  should  be  so  em- 
ployed } 

How  far  slavery  does  and  will  sway  the  national  gov- 
ernment may  be  judged  from  the  fact,  that  it  is  a  bond 
of  union  to  all  who  participate  in  it  ;  that  the  South  is 
prepared  by  it  for  a  cooperation  unknown  at  the  North  ; 
and  that,  of  consequence,  it  gives  to  the  South,  in  no 
small  degree,  the  control  of  the  country.  The  jealous- 
ies of  the  slave-holder  never  sleep.  They  mix  with 
and  determine  our  public  policy  in  matters  w^hich  we 
might  think  least  open  to  this  pernicious  influence.  Of 
late,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in  the  country,* 
the  citizen  of  a  Free  State,  was  nominated  as  Minister 
to  the  English  Court.  He  had  one  qualification,  per- 
haps, above  any  man  who  could  have  been  selected  for 
the  office ;  that  is,  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  our 
controversy  with  Great  Britain  as  to  the  northern  bound- 
ary. His  large  intellectual  culture,  his  literary  emi- 
nence, his  admirable  powers,  and  his  experience  in  pub- 
lic affairs,  fitted  him  to  represent  the  United  States  in  the 
metropolis  of  Europe,  where  a  man  of  narrow  education 
and  ordinary  powers  would  dishonor  his  country.  But 
the  nomination  of  this  gentleman  w^as  resisted  vehe- 
mently in  the  Senate,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  ex- 
pressed his  moral  opposition  to  slavery  ;  and  that  he 
would  not,  therefore,  plead  the  cause  of  slavery  at 
the  Court  of  St.  James.  For  a  time  his  appointment 
was  despaired  of,  and  it  was  confirmed  at  last  only  by  a 

*  Edward  Everett. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  311 

firmness  of  remonstrance  which  the  South  could  not 
safely  oppose.  The  action  of  the  slave-holders  on  this 
subject,  though  not  carried  through,  does  not  the  less 
manifest  their  spirit  and  policy.  They  have  virtually 
expressed  their  purpose  to  exclude  fi'om  all  places  of 
trust  and  honor  every  man  from  the  North  who  ex- 
presses his  moral  feelings  against  slavery.  And  as  these 
feelings  are  spreading  among  us  and  gaining  strength, 
the  slave-holder  has  virtually  passed  a  sentence  of  pro- 
scription on  the  North.  If  possible,  the  door  of  the 
Cabinet  is  to  be  shut  in  our  faces.  The  executive 
power  must  be  lodged  in  other  hands.  Our  most  en- 
lightened and  virtuous  citizens  must  not  represent  the 
country  abroad.  This  rejection  of  a  man  on  the  ground 
of  a  moral  conviction  which  pervades  the  North  is 
equivalent  to  a  general  disfranchisement.  A  new  test 
for  office,  never  dreamed  of  before,  is  to  exclude  us 
from  the  service  of  the  country  in  those  high  public 
trusts  which  are  the  chief  instruments  of  public  influence. 
And  can  we  consent  to  become  a  proscribed  race  ? 
Shall  our  adherence  to  great  principles  be  punished  by 
civil  degradation  ?  Can  we  renounce  all  kindred  with 
our  fathers,  and  suffer  our  very  love  of  freedom  and  jus- 
tice to  be  a  brand  of  disqualification  for  offices  which  by 
the  Constitution  are  thrown  equally  open  to  all  ? 

The  nomination  of  our  Minister  to  England  vv^as  all 
but  rejected,  and  in  this  we  see  how  slavery  has  com- 
plicated itself  with  our  most  important  national  affairs  ; 
how  it  determines  the  weightiest  acts  of  the  general  gov- 
ernment ;  how  it  taints  our  foreign  as  well  as  domestic 
policy.  The  North  cannot  hope  to  escape  with  lending 
a  helping  hand  now  and  then  to  Southern  institutions. 
We  must  put  our  shoulders  to  the  wheel.     We  must  be 


312  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

governed  throughout  with  reference  to  slavery.  Were 
this  the  place,  it  would  be  easy  to  show  how  the  South, 
by  a  skilful  management  of  the  parties  of  the  North,  has 
bent  and  may  continue  to  bend  the  general  government 
to  its  purposes  ;  how  slavery  has  been  made  a  means  of 
concentrating  power  into  the  hands  of  those  who  uphold 
it.  This  institution  is  not  a  narrow  interest,  seldom  in- 
truding itself,  too  trifling  to  quarrel  about ;  but  a  poison- 
ous element,  acting  subtly  on  public  affairs  when  it 
seems  to  be  quiet,  and  sometimes  breaking  out  into  vio- 
lences dishonorable  to  our  national  councils  and  men- 
acing to  the  Union.  Its  influences  are  not  concealed  ; 
and  the  time  has  come  for  solemn,  earnest  effort  to 
sever  it  from  the  government  which  it  would  usurp. 

1  proceed  to  offer  another  reason  for  so  modifying  the 
Constitution  as  to  exclude  slavery  from  its  objects, 
which  is  akin  to  the  last,  but  so  important  as  to  deserve 
distinct  consideration.  The  slave-power  in  Congress 
not  only  mixes  with  and  controls  public  measures,  but  it 
threatens  our  dearest  rights  and  liberties.  It  is  natural 
for  every  power  to  act  and  manifest  itself  according  to 
its  peculiar  character.  We  ought  not,  then,  to  wonder 
that  slavery  should  set  at  nought  all  rights  with  which  it 
comes  in  conflict.  And  yet  that  it  should  be  so  bold, 
so  audacious,  as  it  has  proved  itself,  awakens  some  as- 
tonishment. We  believed  that  the  Constitution  had 
placed  some  rights  above  the  reach  of  any  party  or 
power  ;  yet  on  these  especially  slavery  has  laid  its  hand. 
The  Right  of  Petition  is  one  of  the  last  we  might  sup- 
pose to  be  denied  to  a  people.  It  has  such  a  founda- 
tion in  nature  that  it  is  respected  where  other  rights  are 
trodden  down.  The  despot  opens  his  ears  to  the  pe- 
titions of  his  subjects.     But   in  the  Congress  of  a  free 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  313 

people  petitions  and  memorials  from  large  numbers  of 
citizens,  and  even  from  public  bodies,  have  been  treated 
with  indignity,  and  refused  a  hearing.  But  this  is  not 
all.  The  slave-power  has,  if  possible,  taken  a  more 
daring  step.  A  member  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives *  has  been  censured  by  that  body  for  presenting  a 
series  of  grave  resolutions  asserting  the  relation  of  the 
government  to  slavery,  and  denying  the  extension  of  its 
powers  to  slaves  removed  beyond  our  jurisdiction. 

Liberty  of  speech  has  been  secured  to  us  by  an  ex- 
press provision  of  the  Constitution  ;  and  if  this  right  is 
especially  inviolable  in  any  person,  it  is  in  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  people  standing  up  in  Congress  to  utter 
his  own  views  and  those  of  his  constituents  on  great 
questions  of  public  policy.  That  such  a  man  should  be 
put  to  silence,  should  be  subjected  to  censure  for  ex- 
pressing his  conviction  in  the  calmest  style,  is  a  stretch 
of  power,  an  excess  of  tyranny,  which  would  have  been 
pronounced  impossible  a  few  years  since.  This  is  to 
invade  Liberty  in  her  holiest  place,  her  last  refuge.  It 
was  not  the  individual  who  was  wronged,  but  the  con- 
stituents in  whose  name  he  spoke  ;  the  State  from  which 
he  came  ;  the  whole  nation,  who  can  only  be  heard 
through  its  representatives. 

This  act  stands  alone,  we  conceive,  in  representative 
bodies.  I  have  inquired,  and  cannot  learn  that  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament,  omnipotent  as  it  declares  itself,  ever 
offered  this  outrage  to  freedom,  this  insult  to  the  people. 
Until  this  moment  the  liberty  of  speech  in  Congress  has 
been  held  so  sacred  that  the  representative  in  debate 
has  been  left  to  violate  without  reproof  good  manners 
and  the   decencies   of  social  life  ;  to  bring  dishonor  on 

*  Joshua  K.  Giddings. 

VOL.  VI.  27 


314  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

himself  and  bis  country  by  coarseness  and  ribaldry  ;  to 
consume  hour  after  hour,  perhaps  the  day,  in  declama- 
tions which  have  owed  their  inspiration  less  to  wisdom 
than  to  wine.  During  this  very  session  w^e  have  wit- 
nessed the  spectacle  of  members  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives denouncing  and  insulting  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  a  coordinate  power  of  the  government, 
and  entitled  to  peculiar  respect,  as  embodying  and  repre- 
senting the  nation  to  foreign  countries  ;  and  this  indeco- 
rum has  been  submitted  to,  lest  the  freedom  of  speech 
in  that  chamber  should  be  encroached  on.  But  because 
a  representative  of  high  character  has  thought  fit  to  ex- 
press, in  the  most  unexciting  style,  his  deliberate  convic- 
tions on  a  solemn  question  which  threatens  the  country 
with  w^ar,  he  has  been  subjected  to  the  indignity  of  a 
public  rebuke.  And  why  is  he  selected  above  all  oth- 
ers for  punishment  ?  Because  he  has  so  interpreted  the 
Constitution  as  to  deny  both  the  right  and  the  obliga- 
tion of  the  government  to  protect  slavery  beyond  the 
limit  of  the  United  States.  For  this  sound  exposition 
of  the  national  charter  he  is  denied  an  immunity  extend- 
ed to  the  brawler  and  traducer.  Can  a  precedent  more 
fatal  to  freedom  be  conceived  ?  Where  is  this  tyranny 
to  stop  ?  Is  there  any  doctrine,  any  construction  of 
the  Constitution,  any  vindication  of  the  rights  of  his  con- 
stituents, that  may  chance  to  be  unpopular,  for  which 
a  representative  may  not  incur  this  public  rebuke  .''  Is 
the  tameness  of  the  Free  States  under  this  usurpation 
the  way  to  suppress  it  ?  If  even  in  Congress  unpopulai 
truth  may  not  be  spoken,  w-hat  pledge  have  we  that  it 
may  be  uttered  anywhere  else  ?  A  blow  has  been 
struck  at  freedom  of  speech  in  all  its  forms  ;  and  in  re- 
gard  to  no   other   right  should  we  be   so  jealous   as  in 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  315 

regard  to  this.  As  long  as  we  retain  this  we  retain  the 
means  of  defending  all  our  other  rights,  of  redressing  all 
wrongs.  Take  this  away  and  we  have  no  redress  but 
in  force. 

By  the  Constitution  each  house  of  Congress  has  power 
to  punish  a  member  for  disorderly  behaviour.  In  Eng- 
land, too,  members  may  be  punished  for  "  contempt  of 
the  house."  But  in  these  cases  it  is  not  intended  to 
lay  the  least  restraint  on  the  discussion  of  public  meas- 
ures. In  these  cases  the  sacredness  of  the  representa- 
tive character  is  not  violated.  On  the  contrary,  the 
individual  is  punished  for  insulting  the  representative 
body,  the  honor  of  which  is,  indeed,  his  own.  It  is 
to  preserve  the  house  from  disorders  which  would  in- 
fringe its  privilege  of  free  discussion  that  this  power 
over  its  members  is  chiefly  required.  The  act  of  pun- 
ishing a  member  for  speaking  his  mind  on  general  topics, 
on  the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  is  an  unprecedent- 
ed tyranny,  which  ought  to  have  raised  a  burst  of  in- 
dignation from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other. 
What  right  may  not  be  invaded  next  ?  If  the  freedom 
of  the  press,  if  the  right  of  worshipping  God,  shall  be 
ihouglit  to  come  in  conflict  with  slavery,  what  reason 
have  we  to  hope  that  these,  or  any  other  of  our  liberties, 
will  escape  violation  ?  Nothing  is  more  common  in  life 
than    to  see    men  who  are    accustomed    to    one  outra2:e 

o 

on  rights  emboldened  to  maintain  this  by  others  and 
more  flagrant.  This  experience  of  the  usurpations  of 
the  slave-power  should  teach  us  to  avoid  all  contact 
with  it,  to  exclude  it  from  our  national  government. 
On  this  point,  of  slavery,  the  two  sections  of  the  country 
should  be  separate  nations.  They  should  hold  no  com- 
munion. 


316  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

These  remarks  suggest  another  reason  for  so  modify^ 
ing  the  Constitution  as  to  release  the  Free  States  from 
all  action  on  slavery.  It  is  almost  too  plain  a  reason  to 
be  named,  and  yet  too  important  to  be  overlooked.  Un- 
til such  modification  be  made,  the  country  can  know  no 
peace.  The  Free  and  Slave-holding  States  will  meet 
in  Congress,  not  to  maintain  peace,  not  to  provide  for 
the  common  liberty,  the  common  welfare,  the  common 
defence,  but  for  war.  Subjects  of  public  interest  will 
not  be  looked  at  simply,  nakedly,  according  to  their  own 
merits,  but  through  the  medium  of  jealousy  and  hatred, 
and  according  to  their  apparent  bearing  on  slavery. 
The  "  peculiar  institution  "  of  the  South  is  peculiarly 
sensitive  and  irritable.  It  detects  signs  and  menaces 
of  danger  in  harmless  movements,  and  does  not  weigh 
its  words  in  resenting  supposed  injury.  With  this  root 
of  bitterness  in  our  government,  we  must  expect  dis- 
tracted public  councils  ;  we  must  witness  fiery  passions 
in  the  place  of  wise  deliberations.  The  difi:erent  sec- 
tions of  the  country  will  become  hostile  camps. 

It  is  painful  to  advert  to  the  style  of  debate  which 
the  subject  of  slavery  almost  always  excites  in  Con- 
gress, because  it  can  hardly  be  spoken  of  without  stir- 
ring up  unpleasant  feeling.  On  this  subject  the  fiery 
temperament  of  the  South  disdains  control.  The  North, 
it  is  true,  has  the  comfort  of  knowing  that  it  is  better  to 
be  insulted  than  to  insult  ;  and  yet  it  is  a  position  not 
very  favorable  to  the  temper  or  to  self-respect,  to  be 
compelled  to  listen  to  such  language  as  Northern  men 
hear  on  the  floor  of  Congress.  The  consequences  are 
inevitable.  Forbearance  has  limits  ;  and  reproach  awak- 
ens reaction.     Already  a  venerable  representative  from 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES,  317 

a  Free  State,*  whose  moral  courage,  In  union  with  his 
great  powers,  places  him  at  the  head  of  the  public  men 
of  the  country,  has  presented  a  front  of  stern  opposi- 
tion to  the  violence  of  the  South.  \Ye  thank  him  for 
his  magnanimity.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  greatest  public 
service  ever  rendered  in  Congress  to  the  North  ;  for  no 
man  serves  his  country  like  him  who  exalts  its  spirit. 
Still,  we  must  allow  that  the  eloquence  of  this  illustrious 
statesman  has  not  tended  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  na- 
tion ;  and,  as  friends  of  the  Union,  we  must  earnestly 
desire  to  banish  from  our  public  councils  the  irritating 
subject  which  has  given  birth  to  the  conflicts  in  which 
he  has  borne  so  distinguished  a  part.  No  remedy  short 
of  this  will  meet  the  evil,  nor  can  the  remedy  be  ap- 
plied too  suddenly.  The  breach  is  widening  every  day. 
The  unwillingness  of  the  North  to  participate  in  slavery 
grows  stronger  every  day.  The  love  of  the  Union  has 
suppressed  as  yet  the  free  utterance  of  this  feeling  ;  but 
the  restraints  of  prudence  are  continually  giving  way. 
Slavery  will  not  much  longer  have  the  floor  of  the  Sen- 
ate to  itself,  or  rule  the  House  with  an  iron  hand.  Free- 
dom will  find  tongues  there.  The  open  advocates  of 
human  rights,  as  yet  a  small,  heroic  band,  will  spring  up 
as  a  host.  Is  it  not  the  part  of  wisdom  to  put  an  end 
to  these  deadly  feuds  ?  Is  the  Union  to  become  a 
name  ?  Is  its  chief  good,  concord,  to  be  given  up  in 
despair  ?  And  must  not  concord  be  despaired  of  as 
long  as  slavery  shall  enter  into  the  discussions  of  Con- 
gress ?  The  dissensions  growing  out  of  slavery  throw 
a  fearful  uncertainty  over  the  fortunes  of  this  country. 
Let  us  end  them  at  once  by  dissolving  wholly  the  con- 
nexion between  slavery  and  our  national  concerns. 

*  John  Quincy  Adams. 

27* 


318  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

There  is  one  consideration  which  should  reconcile 
tlie  South  to  such  an  arrangement.  The  Constitution, 
if  not  so  modified,  can  render  little  service  to  slavery. 
In  this  country,  no  law,  no  constitution  can  prevail 
against  the  moral  convictions  of  the  people.  These 
are  stronger  than  parchments,  statutes,  or  tribunals. 
There  is  a  feeling  in  regard  to  slavery,  spreading  rapid- 
ly, which  cannot  be  withstood.  It  is  not  a  fanaticism, 
a  fever,  but  a  calm,  moral,  religious  persuasion  ;  and 
whatever  in  our  institutions  opposes  this  will  be  a  dead 
letter.  No  violence  is  needed  to  annul  a  law  which  the 
moral  feelings  of  a  free  community  condemn.  The  sim- 
ple abstinence  of  the  people  from  action  in  favor  of  an 
unrighteous  law,  and  the  displeasure  with  which  they 
visit  such  as  are  officious  in  its  support,  will  avail  more 
than  armies.  The  South,  then,  in  admitting  such 
changes  of  the  Constitution  as  are  proposed,  will  make 
no  great  sacrifice.  Slavery  must  at  any  rate  cease  to 
look  Northward  for  aid.  Let  it,  then,  consent  to  retire 
within  its  own  bounds.  Let  it  not  mix  itself  with  our 
national  affairs.  Let  the  word  slavery  no  longer  be 
named  within  the  walls  of  Congress.  Such  is  the  good 
now  to  be  sought.  The  North  should  be  stirred  up  to 
demand  it  with  one  voice.  Petitions,  memorials,  direct- 
ed to  this  end,  should  be  poured  in  upon  Congress  as  a 
flood.  The  Free  States  should  employ  political  action 
in  regard  to  slavery  for  one  purpose  alone,  and  that  is, 
to  prevent  all  future  political  action  on  the  subject ;  to 
sever  it  wholly  from  the  government  ;  to  save  the  coun- 
try from  its  disturbing  influence. 

Such  seems  to  me  to  be  the  urgent  duty  of  the  Free 
States.  But  it  is  not  their  whole  duty.  They  are  not 
to  think  of  themselves  only  in  the  changes  which  are  to 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  319 

be  made.  The  South  has  claims  as  well  as  ourselves. 
Whilst  we  say  we  cannot  give  aid  in  holding  the  slaves 
in  bondage,  we  are  bound  to  pledge  ourselves  to  abstain 
from  all  action  on  the  slaves  to  set  them  free.  We  must 
not  use  the  Union  as  a  means  of  access  to  that  part  of 
the  Southern  population.  We  must  regard  them  as  be- 
longing to  foreign  states,  and  must  interfere  with  them 
no  more  than  with  the  serfs  of  Russia  or  the  bondmen 
of  Turkey.  On  this  point  we  should  consent  to  enter 
*nto  strict  terms  with  the  South.  The  best  human  feel- 
ings have  tendencies  to  excess.  The  hostility  to  slavery 
at  the  North  may  pass  its  due  bounds,  and  adopt  modes 
of  action  which  the  South  has  a  right  to  repel  ;  and 
from  these  we  should  bind  ourselves  to  abstain.  For 
example  ;  we  have  heard  of  men  who  have  entered  the 
Southern  States  to  incite  and  aid  the  slave  to  take  flight. 
We  have  also  seen  a  convention  at  the  North  of  highly 
respected  men  preparing  and  publishing  an  address  to 
the  slaves,  in  which  they  are  exhorted  to  fly  from  bond- 
age, and  to  feel  no  scruple  in  seizing  and  using  horse  or 
boat  which  may  facilitate  their  escape.  All  such  inter- 
ference with  the  slave  is  wrong,  and  should  cease.  It 
gives  some  countenance  to  the  predictions  of  cautious 
men  as  to  the  issues  of  the  anti-slavery  movement.  It 
is  a  sign  that  the  enemies  of  slavery  are  losing  their  pa- 
tience, calmness,  and  self-controlling  wisdom  ;  that  they 
cannot  wait  for  the  blessing  of  Providence  on  hely  ef- 
forts ;  that  the  grandeur  of  the  end  is  in  danger  of  blind- 
ing them  as  to  the  character  of  the  means. 

We  are  bound  to  abstain  from  all  such  action  on  the 
slaves,  not  because  the  master  has  a  rightful  property  in 
them,  but  on  the  plain  ground  that  a  Slave-holding  State 
is  a  body  politic,  a  civil  community,  the  peace  and  or- 


320  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

der  of  which  must  not  be  invaded  by  the  members  of  a 
foreign  state.  It  is  plain,  that,  if  the  action  of  a  foreign 
community  on  the  slave  begin  and  be  allowed,  no  limits 
to  it  can  be  prescribed,  and  insurrection  and  massacre 
are  its  almost  necessary  effects.  I  certainly  wish  the 
slave  to  flee,  if  he  can  do  it  without  bloodshed  and  vio- 
lence, and  can  find  a  shelter  for  his  rights  without  ex- 
posing his  character  to  overwhelming  temptation.  But 
were  the  Free  States  to  incite  the  whole  mass  of  slaves 
to  fly  ;  were  one  united,  thrilling,  exasperating  cry  from 
the  North  to  ring  through  the  South,  and  to  possess  the 
millions  who  are  in  bondage  with  the  passion  for  escape; 
would  not  society  be  convulsed  to  its  centre  ?  and  who 
of  us  could  avert  the  terrible  crimes  which  would  be 
perpetrated  in  the  name  of  liberty  ?  No.  Earnestly 
as  I  oppose  slavery,  I  deprecate  all  interference  with 
the  slave  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Slave-holding 
States.  I  will  plead  his  cause  with  whatever  strength 
God  has  given  me.  But  I  can  do  no  more.  God  for- 
bid that  I  should  work  out  his  deliverance  by  force  and 
blood  ! 

These  remarks  are  the  more  important  because  there 
seem  to  be  growing  up  among  us  looser  ideas  than  for- 
merly prevailed  on  the  subject  of  inciting  the  slaves  to 
vindicate  their  rights.  The  common  language  leads  to 
error.  We  are  told,  and  told  truly,  that  the  slave- 
holder has  no  property  in  the  man  whom  he  oppresses  ; 
that  the  slave  has  a  right  to  immediate  freedom  ;  and 
the  inference  which  some  make  is,  that  the  slave  is  au- 
thorized to  use,  without  regard  to  consequences,  the 
means  of  emancipation.  The  next  inference  is,  that  he 
is  to  be  urged  and  aided  to  break  his  chain.  But  these 
views  are  too  sweeping,  and  need  important  modifications. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  321 


(^ 


The  slave  has  a  right  to  hberty  ;  but  a  right  does  not  ' 
inijily  that  it  may  be  asserted  by  any  and  every  means. 
There  is  a  great  law  of  humanity  to  which  all  are  sub- 
ject, the  bond  as  well  as  the  free,  and  which  we  must 
never  lose  sight  of  in  redressing  wrongs,  or  in  claiming 
and  insisting  on  our  due.;  The  slave  cannot  innocently 
adopt  any  and  every  expedient  for  vindicating  his  liber- 
ty. He  is  bound  to  waive  his  right,  if  in  maintaining  it 
he  is  to  violate  the  law  of  humanity,  and  to  spread  gen- 
eral ruin.  Were  I  confined  unjustly  to  a  house,  I 
should  have  no  right  to  free  myself  by  setting  it  on  fire, 
if  thereby  a  family  should  be  destroyed.  An  impressed 
seaman  cannot  innocently  withhold  his  service  in  a 
storm,  and  would  be  bound  to  work  even  in  ordinary 
weather,  if  this  were  needed  to  save  the  ship  from 
foundering.  We  owe  a  debt  of  humanity  even  to  him 
who  wrongs  us,  and  especially  to  those  who  are  linked 
with  him,  and  who  must  suffer,  perhaps  perish  with  him, 
if  we  seek  to  redress  our  wrong. 

The  slave  is  not  property.  He  owes  nothing,  as  a 
slave,  to  his  master.  On  the  contrary,  the  debt  is  on 
his  master's  side.  But,  though  owing  nothing  as  a 
slave,  he  owes  much  as  a  man.  He  must  not,  for  the 
sake  of  his  own  liberty,  involve  a  household  in  destruc- 
tion. He  must  not  combine  with  fellow-slaves  and  ex- 
pose a  community  of  men,  women,  children,  to  brutal 
outrage  and  massacre.  When  the  chain  can  be  brok- 
en only  by  inhumanity,  he  has  no  right  to  break  it.  A 
higher  duty  than  that  of  asserting  personal  rights  is  laid 
on  him.  He  is  bound  by  Divine  authority,  by  the 
Christian  law,  by  enlightened  conscience,  to  submit  to 
his  hard  fate. 

The  slave's  right  to  liberty,  then,  is  a  qualified  one  ; 


322  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

qualified,  not  in  the  slightest  degree  by  any  righi  of 
property  in  his  master,  but  solely  by  the  great  law  of 
humanity.  He  is  a  man,  under  all  the  obligations  of  a 
member  of  the  human  family,  and  therefore  bound  at  all 
times  to  unite  a  regard  for  others  with  a  regard  to  him- 
self His  master,  indeed,  denies  his  humanity,  and 
treats  him  as  a  brute  ;  and  were  he  what  his  master 
deems  him,  he  might  innocently  at  any  moment  cut  the 
throats  of  his  master  and  master's  wife  and  child.  But 
his  human  nature,  though  trampled  on,  endures,  and 
lays  on  him  obligation  to  refrain  from  cruelty.  From 
these  views  we  learn  that  the  right  of  the  slave  to  free 
himself  is  not  to  be  urged  on  him  without  reserve. 

In  these  remarks  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  I  should 
blame  the  slave  for  rising  at  any  moment  against  his 
master.  In  so  doing  he  would  incur  no  guilt  ;  for  in 
his  ignorance  he  cannot  comprehend  why  he  should  for- 
bear. He  would  vindicate  an  undoubted  right.  His 
rude  conscience  would  acquit  him  ;  and  far  be  it  from 
me  to  condemn  !  But  we,  who  are  more  enlightened, 
who  know  the  consequences  of  revolt,  should  beware 
of  rousing  that  wild  mass  of  degraded  men  to  the  asser- 
tion of  their  rights.  Such  consequences  humanity  com- 
mands us  to  respect.  Were  it  not  for  these,  I  would 
summon  that  mass  as  loudly  as  any  to  escape.  Could  I 
by  my  words  so  awaken  and  guide  the  millions  of  slaves 
that  without  violence  and  bloodshed  they  could  reach 
safely  a  land  of  freedom  and  order,  I  would  shout  in 
thunder-tones,  *'  Fly!  Fly  !  "  But  it  is  not  given  us  thus 
to  act  in  human  affairs.  It  is  not  given  us  to  enter  and 
revolutionize  a  state,  to  subvert  old  institutions  and  plant 
new,  without  carrying  with  us  strife,  tumult,  bloodshed, 
horrible   crimes.      The  law  of  humanity,  then,  restrains 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  323 

US  from  this  direct  agency  on  other  states.  It  restrains 
us  from  abandoning  ourselves  to  our  zeal  for  the  op- 
pressed. It  restrains  us  from  kindling  the  passions  of 
the  slave.  It  commands  us  to  teach  him  patience  and 
love. 

May  I  here  be  allowed  a  moment's  digression,  which, 
indeed,  has  important  connexions  with  the  whole  sub- 
ject ?  The  principle  now  laid  down  helps  us  to  com- 
prehend the  language  of  the  New  Testament  on  the 
subject  of  slavery.  The  slave  is  again  and  again  com- 
manded by  the  Apostle  to  obey,  and  forbidden  to  pur- 
loin, or  to  answer  rudely  ;  and  from  such  passages  it 
has  been  argued  that  Christianity  sanctions  slavery. 
But  the  great  question  is.  On  what  grounds,  for  what 
reasons,  do  the  Scriptures  enjoin  obedience  on  the 
slave  ?  Do  they  do  so  on  the  ground  of  any  right  of 
property  in  the  master  ?  This  is  the  single  question. 
Not  an  intimation  to  this  effect  is  found  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. They  teach  the  slave  to  obey,  not  because  he  is 
a  chattel,  not  because  he  is  bound  by  human  laws  of 
property,  but  because  he  is  bound  by  the  Christian  law 
of  humanity  and  love  ;  because  he  is  bound  everywhere 
to  manifest  a  spirit  of  mildness  and  charity,  and  in  this 
way  to  express  the  divine,  elevating  influences  of  his 
new  religion. 

At  the  introduction  of  Christianity  slavery  was  an  un- 
utterable abomination,  more  horrible  than  what  exists 
now.  Good  and  great  men,  refined  women,  were  then 
liable  to  be  reduced  to  bondage.  On  the  conquest  of  a 
country  not  only  were  prisoners  of  war  sold  as  slaves 
without  regard  to  rank  or  character,  but,  as  in  the  case 
of  Judea,  the  mass  of  the  peaceful  population  were 
doomed  to  the  yoke.     To  suppose  that  the  apostles  of 


024  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

Christ  intended  to  sanction  tliis  infernal  system  is  an  in- 
sult to  those  generous  men,  and  a  blasphemy  against  our 
pure  and  merciful  faith.  But  slavery  was  then  so  in- 
woven into  the  institutions  of  society,  the  dangers  and 
horrors  of  a  servile  war  were  so  great,  the  consequences 
of  a  proclamation  of  universal  liberty  would  have  been 
so  terrible,  the  perils  to  the  cause  of  Christianity,  had  it 
been  so  taught,  would  have  been  so  imminent,  and  the 
motives  for  manifesting  Christianity,  at  its  birth,  as  a 
spirit  of  unbounded  meekness  and  love,  were  so  urgent 
that  the  apostles  inculcated  on  the  slaves  an  obedience 
free  from  every  taint  of  dishonesty,  wrath,  or  revenge. 
Their  great  motive,  as  they  stated  it,  was,  that  Chris- 
tianity might  not  be  spoken  against,  that  it  might  be 
seen  breathing  love  and  uprightness  into  men  whose  cir- 
cumstances were  peculiarly  fitted  to  goad  them  to  anger 
and  revenge. 

To  suppose  that  the  apostles  recognized  the  right  of 
the  master,  because  they  taught  mildness  and  patience 
to  the  slave,  is  to  show  a  strange  ignorance  of  the  New 
Testament.  Our  religion,  in  its  hostility  to  a  spirit  of 
retaliation,  violence,  and  revenge,  enforces  submission 
and  patience  as  strongly  on  the  free  as  on  the  slave. 
It  says  to  us  :  "  If  a  man  smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek, 
turn  to  him  the  other  also.  If  he  take  away  thy  coat, 
let  him  have  thy  cloak  also.  And  whosoever  shall  com- 
pel thee  to  go  a  mile,  go  with  him  twain."  Is  this  a 
recognition  of  our  neighbour's  right  to  smite  us,  to  take 
our  coat,  and  compel  us  to  go  a  mile  for  his  con- 
venience .'' 

Christianity  has  extended  the  law  of  humanity  to  a 
degree  never  dreamed  of  in  earlier  times,  and  but  faintly 
comprehended  now.     It  requii  es  us  all  to  love  and  serve 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  325 

our  enemies,  and  to  submit  to  unjust  government,  in  lan- 
guage so  strong  and  unqualified  as  to  furnish  an  objec- 
tion to  its  opposers  ;  and  in  all  these  requisitions  it  has 
but  one  end,  which  is,  to  inspire  the  sufferer  with  for- 
bearance and  humanity,  not  to  assert  a  right  in  the 
wrong-doer. 

When  I  consider  the  tenderness  which  Christianity 
enjoins  towards  the  injurious,  I  cannot  but  shrink  from 
the  lightness  with  which  some  speak  of  insurrection  at 
the  South.  Were  I  to  visit  the  slave,  I  should  in  every 
way  discourage  the  spirit  of  violence  and  revenge.  I 
should  say  :  "  Resist  not  evil  ;  obey  your  master  ;  for- 
give your  enemies  ;  put  off  wrath  and  hatred  ;  put  on 
meekness  and  love  ;  do  not  lie  or  steal  ;  govern  your 
passions  ;  be  kind  to  one  another  ;  by  your  example  and 
counsels  lift  up  the  degraded  around  you  ;  be  true  to 
your  wives,  and  loving  to  your  children.  And  do  not 
deem  your  lot  in  every  view  the  worst  on  earth  ;  the 
time  is  coming  when  it  will  be  found  better  to  have  been 
a  slave  than  a  master  ;  better  to  have  borne  the  yoke 
than  to  have  laid  it  on  another.  God  regards  you  with 
mercy ;  He  offers  you  his  best  blessings  ;  '  He  resisteth 
the  proud,  but  giveth  grace  to  the  humble.'  " 

From  all  these  views  I  am  bound  to  discourage  all 
action  on  the  slaves  on  the  part  of  those  who  reside  in 
other  States.  When  the  individual  slave  flees  to  us,  let 
us  rejoice  in  his  safe  and  innocent  flight.  But  with  the 
millions  of  slaves  in  the  land  of  bondage  we  cannot  in- 
termeddle without  incurring  imminent  peril.  The  evil 
is  too  vast,  rooted,  compHcated,  terrible,  for  strangers 
to  deal  with,  except  by  that  moral  influence  which  we 
are  authorized  and  bound  to  oppose  firmly  and  fearlessly 
to  all  oppression.     We  may  and  ought  to  mourn  over 

VOL.  VI.  28 


326  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

the  chain  which  weighs  down  millions  of  our  brethren, 
and  to  rouse  the  sympathies  and  convictions  of  the 
world  in  aid  of  their  violated  rights.  Our  moral  power 
we  must  not  cease  to  oppose  to  the  master's  claim  ;  but 
the  Free  States  must  not  touch  this  evil  by  legislation 
or  physical  power,  or  by  any  direct  agency  on  the  ser- 
vile population.  God  has  marked  out  our  sphere  of 
duty  ;  and  no  passionate  sense  of  injustice,  no  burning 
desire  to  redress  wrong,  must  carry  us  beyond  it.  Hav- 
ing fully  done  the  work  given  us  to  do,  we  must  leave 
the  evil  to  the  control  of  Him  who  has  infinite  means  of 
controlling  it,  whose  almighty  justice  can  shiver  the 
chain  of  adamant  as  a  wreath  of  mist  is  scattered  by  the 
whirlwind, 
y  f  I  have  thus  set  forth  what  seem  to  me  the  chief  duties 
of  the  Free  States  in  regard  to  slavery.  First,  they 
must  insist  on  such  constructions  of  the  Constitution  as 
will  save  our  own  citizens  from  the  grasp  of  this  institu- 
tion, as  will  prevent  the  extension  of  the  powers  of  the 
government  for  its  support  beyond  our  own  shores,  and 
as  will  bring  to  an  end  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  ;  and  secondly,  we  must  insist  on 
such  modifications  of  the  Constitution  as  will  exempt  us 
from  every  obligation  to  sustain  and  strengthen  slavery, 
whilst  at  the  same  time  we  give  every  pledge  not  to  use 
our  relation  to  the  slave-holder  as  a  means  of  acting  on 
the  slave.  )  These  are  solemn  duties,  not  to  the  slaves 
only  or  chiefly,  but  to  ourselves  also.  They  involve 
our  peace  at  home  and  abroad.  They  touch  alike  our 
rights  and  interests.  On  our  performance  of  these  de- 
pend the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  and  our  rank  among 
nations.  Slavery,  if  it  shall  continue  to  be  a  national 
concern,  and  to  insinuate  itself  into  our  domestic  policy, 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  327 

wl  prove  more  and  more  a  firebrand,  a  torch  of  the 
Furies.  The  agitation  which  it  has  produced  is  but  the 
beginning  of  evils.  Nothing  but  the  separation  of  it 
from  our  federal  system  can  give  us  peace. 

The  immediate  purpose  of  these  remarks  has  been 
answered.  But  the  topic  of  the  Duties  of  the  Free 
States  in  relation  to  slavery  has  started  various  thoughts, 
and  brought  to  view  other  duties  more  or  less  connected 
with  my  primary  object  ;  and  as  I  have  no  desire  to 
communicate  again  my  thoughts  on  public  afiairs,  I  shalj 
be  glad  to  use  this  opportunity  of  disburdening  my  mind. 
My  thoughts  will  arrange  themselves  under  three  heads, 
which,  however  imperfectly  treated,  deserve  serious  at- 
tention. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Free  States  are  especially 
called  to  uphold  the  great  Ideas  or  Principles  which  dis- 
tinguish our  country,  and  on  which  our  Constitution 
rests.  This  may  be  said  to  be  our  highest  political 
duty.  Every  country  Is  characterized  by  certain  great 
Ideas  which  pervade  the  people  and  the  government, 
and  by  these  chiefly  its  rank  is  determined.  When 
one  idea  predominates  strongly  above  all  others,  it  is  a 
key  to  a  nation's  history.  The  great  Idea  of  Rome, 
that  which  the  child  drank  in  with  his  mother's  milk, 
was  Dominion.  The  great  Idea  of  France  is  Glory. 
In  despotisms  the  Idea  of  the  King  or  the  Church  pos- 
sesses Itself  of  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  a  super- 
stitious loyalty  or  piety  becomes  the  badge  of  the  in- 
habitants. The  most  interesting  view  of  this  country  is 
the  grandeur  of  the  idea  which  has  determined  Its  his- 
tory, and  which  is  expressed  in  all  its  institutions. 
Take  away  this,  and  we  have   nothing   to  distinguish  us. 


328  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES, 

In  the  refined  arts,  in  manners,  in  works  of  genius,  we 
are  as  yet  surpassed.  From  our  youth  and  insulated 
position,  our  history  has  no  dazzHng  brilHancy.  But 
one  distinction  belongs  to  us.  A  great  idea  from  the 
beginning  has  been  working  in  the  minds  of  this  people, 
and  it  broke  forth  with  peculiar  energy  in  our  Revolu- 
tion. This  is  the  idea  of  Human  Rights.  In  our  Revo- 
lution Liberty  was  our  watchword  ;  but  not  a  lawless 
liberty,  not  freedom  from  all  restraint,  but  a  moral  free- 
dom. Liberty  was  always  regarded  as  each  man's 
right,  imposing  on  every  other  man  a  moral  obligation  to 
abstain  from  doing  it  violence.  Liberty  and  law  were 
always  united  in  our  minds.  By  Government  we  under- 
stood the  concentration  of  the  power  of  the  whole  com- 
munity to  protect  the  rights  of  each  and  all  its  members. 
This  was  the  grand  idea  on  which  all  our  institutions 
were  built.  We  believed  that  the  rights  of  the  people 
were  safest,  and  alone  safe,  in  their  own  keeping,  and 
therefore  we  adopted  popular  forms.  We  looked,  in- 
deed, to  government  for  the  promotion  of  the  public 
welfare,  as  well  as  for  the  defence  of  rights.  But  we 
felt  that  the  former  was  included  in  the  latter  ;  that,  in 
securing  to  every  man  the  largest  liberty,  the  right  to 
exercise  and  improve  all  his  powers,  to  elevate  himself 
and  his  condition,  and  to  govern  himself,  subject  only  to 
the  limitation  which  the  equal  freedom  of  others  im- 
poses, we  were  providing  most  effectually  for  the  com- 
mon good.  It  was  felt  that  under  this  moral  freedom 
men's  powers  would  expand,  and  would  secure  to  them 
immeasurably  greater  good  than  could  be  conferred  by 
a  government  intermeddling  perpetually  with  the  subject, 
and  imposing  minute  restraints. 

These  views  of  human  rights,  which  pervade  and  light 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 


329 


up  our  history,  may  be  expressed  in  one  word.     They 
are  summed  up  in  respect  for  the  Individual  Man.     In 
all  other  countries  the  man   has   been  obscured,  over- 
powered by  rulers,  merged  in  the  state,  made  a  means 
or  tool.     Here  every  man  has  been  recognized  as  hav- 
ing rights  on  which  no  one  can  trench  without  crnne. 
The  nation  has  recognized  something  greater  than  the 
nation's  prosperity,  than  outward,  material  interests ;  and 
that  is,  Individual  Right.     In  our  Revolution  a  dignity 
was  seen  in  human  nature  ;  a  generous  confidence  was 
placed  in  men.     It  was  believed  that  they  would  attain 
to  greater  nobleness  by  being  left  to  govern  themselves; 
that  they  would  attain  to  greater  piety  by  being  left  to 
worship  God  according  to  their  own  convictions  ;  that 
they  would  attain  to  greater  energy  of  intellect,  and  to 
higher  truths,  by  being  left  to  freedom  of  thought  and 
utterance,  than  by  the  wisest  forms  of  arbitrary  rule.     It 
was  beheved  that  a  universal  expansion  of  the  higher 
faculties  was  to  be  secured  by  increasing  men's  responsi- 
bilities, bv  giving  them  higher  interests  to  watch  over, 
by  throwing  them  very  much  on  themselves,     buch  is 
the  Krand  idea  which  Ues  at  the  root  of  our  institutions  ; 
such  the  fondamental  doctrines  of  the  political  creed  mto 
which  we  have  all  been  baptized. 

It  is  to  the  Free  States  that  the  guardianship  ot  this 
true  faith  pecuharly  belongs.  Their  institutions  are  most 
in  harmony  with  it ;  and  they  need  to  be  reminded  of 
this  duty,  because,  under  the  happiest  circumstances,  the 
idea  of  Human  Rights  is  easily  obscured  ;  because  there 
is  always  a  tendency  to  exalt  worldly,  material  interests 
above  it.  The  recent  history  of  the  country  shows  the 
worship  of  wealth  taking  the  place  of  reverence  for  lib- 
erty and  universal  justice.  The  Free  States  are  called 
28* 


330  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

to  watch  against  this  peril,  to  regard  government,  not  (.3 
a  machine  for  creating  wealth,  for  subserving  individual 
cupidity,  for  furnishing  facilities  of  boundless  specula- 
tion, but  as  a  moral  institution,  designed  to  secure  Uni- 
versal Right,  to  protect  every  man  in  the  liberties  and 
immunities  through  which  he  is  to  work  out  his  highest 
good. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  imagined  that  the  great  idea 
of  our  country  is  to  be  wrought  out  or  realized  by  gov- 
ernment alone.  This  is,  indeed,  an  important  instru- 
ment, but  it  does  not  cover  the  whole  field  of  human 
rights.  The  most  precious  of  these  it  can  hardly  touch. 
Government  is,  after  all,  a  coarse  machine,  very  narrow 
in  its  operations,  doing  little  for  human  advancement  in 
comparison  with  other  influences.  A  man  has  other 
rights  than  those  of  property  and  person,  which  the  gov- 
ernment takes  under  its  protection.  He  has  a  right  to 
be  regarded  and  treated  as  a  man,  as  a  being  who  has 
excellent  powers  and  a  high  destiny.  He  has  a  right  to 
sympathy  and  deference,  a  right  to  be  helped  in  the  im- 
provement of  his  nature,  a  right  to  share  in  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  community,  a  right  to  the  means,  not  only 
of  bodily,  but  of  spiritual  well-being.  These  rights  a 
government  can  do  little  to  protect  or  aid.  Yet  on 
these  human  progress  chiefly  rests.  To  bring  these  into 
clear  light,  to  incorporate  a  reverential  feeling  for  these, 
not  only  into  government,  but  into  manners  and  social 
life  ;  this  is  the  grand  work  to  which  our  country  is 
called. 

In  this  country  the  passion  for  wealth  is  a  mighty 
force,  acting  in  hostihty  to  the  great  idea  which  rules  in 
our  institutions.  Property  continually  tends  to  become 
a  more  vivid  idea  than  right.     In  the  struggle  for  private 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  331 

accumulation  the  worth  of  every  human  being  is  over- 
looked, the  importance  of  every  man's  progress  is  for- 
gotten. We  must  contend  for  this  great  idea.  They 
who  hold  it  must  spread  it  around  them.  The  truth  must 
be  sounded  in  the  ears  of  men,  that  the  grand  end  of 
society  is,  to  place  within  reach  of  all  its  members  the 
means  of  improvement,  of  elevation,  of  the  true  happi- 
ness of  man.  There  is  a  higher  duty  than  to  build  alms- 
houses for  the  poor,  and  that  is,  to  save  men  from  being 
degraded  to  the  blighting  influence  of  an  almshouse. 
Man  has  a  right  to  something  more  than  bread  to  keep 
him  from  starving.  He  has  a  right  to  the  aids  and  en- 
couragements and  culture  by  which  he  may  fulfil  the 
destiny  of  a  man  ;  and  until  society  is  brought  to  recog- 
nize and  reverence  this,  it  will  continue  to  groan  under 
its  present  miseries. 

Let  me  repeat,  that  government  alone  cannot  reahze 
the  great  idea  of  this  country  ;  that  is,  cannot  secure  to 
every  man  all  his  rights.  Legislation  has  its  limits.  It 
is  a  power  to  be  wielded  against  a  few  evils  only.  It 
acts  by  physical  force,  and  all  the  higher  improvements 
of  human  beings  come  from  truth  and  love.  Govern- 
ment does  little  more  than  place  society  in  a  condition 
which  favors  the  action  of  higher  powers  than  its  own. 
A  great  idea  may  be  stamped  on  the  government,  and 
be  contradicted  in  common  life.  It  is  very  possible  un- 
der popular  forms  that  a  spirit  of  exclusiveness  and  of 
contempt  for  the  multitude,  that  impassable  social  bar- 
riers, and  the  degradation  of  large  masses,  may  continue 
as  truly  as  under  aristocratic  forms.  The  spirit  of  soci- 
ety, not  an  outward  institution,  is  the  mighty  power  by 
which  the  hard  lot  of  man  is  to  be  mehorated.  The 
great  idea,  that  every  human  being  has  a  right  to  the 


332  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

means  of  exercising  and  improving  his  highest  powers, 
must  pass  from  a  cold  speculation  into  a  living  convic- 
tion, and  then  society  will  begin  in  earnest  to  accomplish 
its  end.  This  great  idea  exists  as  yet  only  as  a  germ,  in 
the  most  advanced  communities,  and  is  working  faintly. 
But  it  cannot  die.  We  hear,  indeed,  much  desponding 
language  about  society.  The  cant  of  the  day  is  the  cant 
of  indifference  or  despair.  But  let  it  not  discourage  us. 
It  is,  indeed,  possible  that  this  country  may  sink  beneath 
the  work  imposed  on  it  by  Providence,  and,  instead  of 
bringing  the  world  into  its  debt,  may  throw  new  darkness 
over  human  hope.  But  great  ideas,  once  brought  to 
light,  do  not  die.  The  multitude  of  men  through  the 
civilized  world  are  catching  some  glimpses,  however  in- 
distinct, of  a  higher  lot  ;  are  waking  up  to  something 
higher  than  animal  good.  There  is  springing  up  an  as- 
piration among  them,  which,  however  dreaded  as  a  dan- 
gerous restlessness,  is  the  natural  working  of  the  human 
spirit,  whenever  it  emerges  from  gross  ignorance,  and 
seizes  on  some  vague  idea  of  its  rights.  Thank  God  !  it 
is  natural  for  man  to  aspire  ;  and  this  aspiration  ceases 
to  be  dangerous  just  in  proportion  as  the  intelligent  mem- 
bers of  society  interpret  it  aright,  and  respond  to  it,  and 
give  themselves  to  the  work  of  raising  their  brethren. 
If,  through  self-indulgence  or  pride,  they  decline  this 
work,  the  aspiration  will  not  cease  ;  but  growing  up 
under  resistance  or  contempt,  it  may  become  a  spirit  of 
hostility,  conflict,  revenge. 

The  fate  of  this  country  depends  on  nothing  so  much 
as  on  the  growth  or  decline  of  the  great  idea  which  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  all  our  institutions  :  the  idea  of  the 
sacredness  of  every  man's  right,  the  respect  due  to 
every   human    being.     This   exists   among   us.     It  has 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  333 

Stamped  itself  on  government.  It  is  now  to  stamp  itself 
on  manners  and  common  life  ;  a  far  harder  work.  It 
will  then  create  a  society  such  as  men  have  not  antici- 
pated, but  which  is  not  to  be  despaired  of,  if  Christianity 
be  divine,  or  if  the  highest  aspirations  of  the  soul  be 
true.  It  is  only  in  the  Free  States  that  the  great  idea 
of  which  I  have  spoken  can  be  followed  out.  It  is  de- 
nied openly,  flagrantly,  where  slavery  exists.  To  be 
true  to  it  is  our  first  political,  social  duty. 

I  proceed  to  another  important  topic,  and  that  is,  the 
duty  of  the  Free  States  in  relation  to  the  Union.     They 
and  the  Slave-holding  States  constitute  one  people.     Is 
this  tie  to  continue,  or  to  be  dissolved  ?     It  cannot  be 
disguised  that  this  subject  is  growing  into  importance. 
The  South  has  talked  recklessly  about  disunion.     The 
more  quiet  North  has  said  little,  but  thought  more  ;  and 
there   are  now  not  a  few  who  speak  of  the  Union  as 
doomed  to  dissolution,  whilst  a  few  seem  disposed  to 
hasten  the  evil  day.      Some  approach  the  subject,  not  as 
politicians,  but  as  religious  men,  bound  first  to  inquire 
into  the  moral  fitness  of  political  arrangements  ;  and  they 
have  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  a  union  with  States 
sustaining  slavery  is  unjust,  and  ought  to  be  renounced, 
at  whatever  cost.     That  the  Union  is  in  danger  is  not  to 
be  admitted.     Its  strength  would  be  made  manifest  by 
the  attempt  to  dissolve  it.     But  any  thing  which  men- 
aces it  deserves  attention.      So  great  a  good  should  be 
exposed  to  no  hazard  which  can  be  shunned. 

The  Union  is  an  inestimable  good.  It  is  to  be  prized 
for  its  own  sake,  to  be  prized,  not  merely  or  chiefly  for 
its  commercial  benefits  or  any  pecuniary  advantages,  but 
simply  as  Union,  simply  as  a  pacific  relation  between 


334  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

communities  which  without  this  tie  would  be  exposed  to 
ruinous  collisions.  To  secure  this  boon  we  should  wil- 
lingly make  great  sacrifices.  So  full  of  crime  and  mis- 
ery are  hostile  relations  between  neighbouring  rival  states 
that  a  degree  of  misgovernment  should  be  preferred  to 
the  danger  of  conflict.  Disunion  would  not  only  em- 
broil us  with  one  another,  but  with  foreign  nations  ;  for 
these  States,  once  divided,  would  connect  themselves 
with  foreign  powers,  which  would  profit  by  our  jeal- 
ousies, and  involve  our  whole  policy  in  inextricable  con- 
fusion. 

There  are  some  among  us  who  are  unwilling  to  be 
connected  with  States  sustaining  so  great  a  wrong  as 
slavery.  But  if  the  North  can  be  exempted  from  obli- 
gation to  sustain  it,  we  ought  not  to  make  its  existence 
at  the  South  a  ground  of  separation.  The  doctrine,  that 
intimate  political  connexion  is  not  to  be  maintained  with 
men  practising  a  great  wrong,  would  lead  to  the  dissolu- 
tion of  all  government,  and  of  civil  society.  Every  na- 
tion, great  or  small,  contains  multitudes  who  practise 
wrongs,  nor  is  it  possible  to  exclude  such  from  political 
power.  Injustice,  if  not  the  ruling  element  in  human 
affairs,  has  yet  a  fearful  influence.  In  popular  govern- 
ments the  ambitious  and  intriguing  often  bear  sway. 
Men,  who  are  ready  to  sacrifice  quiet  and  domestic  com- 
forts and  all  other  interests  to  political  place  and  promo- 
tion, will  snatch  the  prize  from  uncompromising,  modest 
virtue.  In  our  present  low  civilization  a  community  has 
no  pledge  of  being  governed  by  its  virtue.  In  free  gov- 
ernments parties  are  the  means  of  power,  and  a  country 
can  fall  under  few  more  immoral  influences  than  party 
spirit.  Witiiout  a  deep  moral  revolution  in  society,  we 
must  continue  to  be  ruled  very  imperfectly.     In  truth, 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  335 

among  the  darkest  mysteries  of  Providence  are  the 
crimes  and  woes  flowing  from  the  organization  of  men 
into  states,  from  our  subjection  to  human  rule.  The 
very  vices  of  men  which  make  government  needful  un- 
fit them  to  govern.  Government  is  only  to  be  endured 
on  account  of  the  greater  evils  of  anarchy  which  it  pre- 
vents. It  is  no  sufficient  reason,  then,  for  breaking 
from  the  Slave-holding  States,  that  they  practise  a  great 
wrong. 

Besides,  are  not  the  purposes  of  Providence  often 
accomplished  by  the  association  of  the  good  with  the 
comparatively  bad  ?  Is  the  evil  man,  or  the  evil  com- 
munity, to  be  excluded  from  brotherly  feeling,  to  be 
treated  as  an  outcast  by  the  more  innocent  }  Would 
not  this  argue  a  want  of  faith  and  love,  rather  than  a  just 
abhorrence  of  wrong  ?  Undoubtedly  the  good  are  to 
free  themselves  from  participation  in  crime  ;  but  they 
are  not  therefore  to  sever  human  ties,  or  renounce  the 
means  of  moral  influence. 

With  w^hom  can  we  associate,  if  we  will  have  no  fel- 
lowship with  wrong-doing  ?  Can  a  new  confederacy  be 
formed  which  will  exclude  selfishness,  jealousy,  intrigue  ? 
Do  not  all  confederacies  provoke  among  their  members 
keen  competitions  for  power,  and  induce  unjust  means 
of  securing  it  ?  On  the  whole,  has  not  our  present 
Union  been  singularly  free  from  the  collisions  which 
naturally  spring  from  such  close  political  connexion  } 
Would  a  smaller  number  of  States  be  more  likely  to 
agree  ^  Do  we  not  owe  to  the  extent  of  the  Union  the 
singular  fact,  that  no  State  has  inspired  jealousy  by  dis- 
proportionate influence  or  power  .'' 

The  South,  indeed,  is  wedded  to  an  unjust  institution. 
But  the  South  is  not  therefore  another  name  for  injus- 


336  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

tice.  Slave-holding  is  not  the  only  relation  of  its  inhab- 
itants. They  are  bound  together  by  the  various  and 
most  interesting  ties  of  life.  They  are  parents  and  chil- 
dren, husbands  and  wives,  friends,  neighbours,  members 
of  the  state,  members  of  the  Christian  body  ;  and  in  all 
these  relations  there  may  be  found  models  of  purity  and 
virtue.  How  many  among  ourselves,  who  must  at  any 
rate  form  part  of  a  political  body,  and  fill  the  highest 
places  in  the  Stale,  fall  short  of  multitudes  at  the  South 
in  moral  and  religious  principle  !  * 

Form  what  confederacy  we  may,  it  will  often  pledge 
us  to  the  wrong  side.  Its  powers  will  often  be  perverted. 
The  majority  will  be  seduced  again  and  again  into  crime  ; 
and  incorruptible  men,  pohtically  weak,  will  be  com- 
pelled to  content  themselves  with  what  will  seem  wasted 
remonstrance.  No  paradise  opens  itself,  if  we  leave  our 
Union  with  the  corrupt  South.  A  corrupt  North  will 
be  leagued  together  to  act  out  the  evil,  as  well  as  the 
good,  which  is  at  work  in  its  members.  A  mournful 
amount  of  moral  evil  is  to  be  found  through  this  part  of 
the  country.  The  spirit  of  commerce,  which  is  the 
spirit  of  the  North,  has  lately  revealed  the  tendencies  to 
guilt  w^hich  it  involves.  We  are  taught,  that,  however 
covered  up  with  the  name  of  honor,  however  restrained 
by  considerations  of  reputation  and  policy,  trade  may 
undermine  integrity  to  an  extent  which  shakes  the  con- 
fidence of  the  unthinking  in  all  human  virtue. 

The  fiery  passions  which  have  broken  out  at  the 
South  since  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  have 
ahenated  many  among  us  from  that  part  of  the  country. 
But  these  prove  no  singular  perverseness  or  corruption. 

*  See  Note  B. 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  337 

What  else  could  have  been  expected  ?  Was  it  to  be 
imagined  that  a  proud,  fiery  people  could  hear  patiently 
one  of  their  oldest  and  most  rooted  institutions  set  down 
among  the  greatest  wrongs  and  oppressions  ?  that  men 
holding  the  highest  rank  would  consent  to  bear  the  re- 
proach of  trampling  right  and  humanity  in  the  dust  ?  Do 
men  at  the  North,  good  or  bad,  abandon  without  a  strug- 
gle advantages  confirmed  to  them  by  long  prescription  ? 
Do  they  easily  relinquish  gainful  vocations  on  which  the 
moral  sentiment  of  the  community  begins  to  frown  ?  Is 
it  easy  to  bring  down  the  exalted  from  the  chief  seats  in 
society  ?  to  overcome  the  pride  of  caste  ?  to  disarm  the 
prejudices  of  a  sect  ?  Is  human  nature  among  ourselves 
easily  dispossessed  of  early  prepossessions,  and  open  to 
rebuke  ?  That  the  South  should  react  with  violence 
against  anti-slavery  doctrines  was  the  most  natural  thing 
in  the  world  ;  and  the  very  persons  whose  consciences 
were  the  most  reconciled  to  the  evil,  who  least  suspected 
wrong  in  the  institution,  were  likely  to  feel  themselves 
most  aggrieved.  The  exasperated  jealousies  of  the 
South  in  regard  to  the  North  are  such  as  spring  up  uni- 
versally towards  communities  of  different  habits,  prin- 
ciples, and  feelings,  which  have  got  the  start  of  their 
neighbours,  and  take  the  liberty  to  reprove  them.  Allow 
the  South  to  be  passionate.  Passion  is  not  the  worst 
vice  on  the  earth,  nor  are  a  fiery  people  the  greatest 
offenders.  Such  evils  are  not  the  most  enduring.  Con- 
flagrations in  communities,  as  in  the  forest,  die  out  sooner 
or  later. 

Perhaps  we  have  not  felt  enough  how  tender  are  the 
points  which  the  anti-slavery  movement  has  touched  at 
the  South.  The  slave  is  property  ;  and  to  how  many 
men  everywhere  is  property  dearer  than  life  !     Nor  is 

VOL.   VI.  29 


338  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

this  all.  The  slave  is  not  only  the  object  of  cupidity, 
but  of  a  stronger  passion,  the  passion  for  power.  The 
slave-holder  is  not  only  an  owner,  but  a  master.  He 
rules,  he  wields  an  absolute  sceptre  ;  and  when  have 
men  yielded  empire  without  conflict  ?  Would  the  North 
make  such  a  sacrifice  more  cheerfully  than  the  South  ? 

To  judge  justly  of  the  violence  of  the  South,  another 
consideration  must  not  be  overlooked.  It  must  be  ac- 
knowledged that  abundant  fuel  has  been  ministered  to 
the  passions  of  the  slave-holder  by  the  vehemence  with 
which  his  domestic  institutions  were  assailed  at  the 
North.  No  deference  was  paid  to  his  sensitiveness,  his 
dignity.  The  newly  awakened  sympathy  with  the  slave 
not  only  denied  the  rights,  but  set  at  nought  all  the  feel- 
ings of  the  master.  That  a  gentle  or  more  courteous 
approach  would  have  softened  him  is  not  said  ;  but  that 
the  whole  truth  might  have  been  spoken  in  tones  less 
offensive  cannot  be  questioned  ;  so  that  we  who  have 
opposed  slavery  are  responsible  in  part  for  the  violence 
which  has  ofTended  us. 

No  !  the  spirit  of  the  South  furnishes  no  argument  for 
dissolving  the  Union.  That  States  less  prosperous  than 
ourselves  should  be  jealous  of  movements  directed  from 
this  quarter  against  their  institutions  is  not  strange.  We 
must  imagine  ourselves  in  the  position  of  the  South,  to 
judge  of  the  severity  of  the  trial.  We  must  not  forget, 
that,  to  the  multitude  there,  slavery  seems,  if  not  right  in 
itself,  yet  an  irremediable  evil.  They  look  at  it  in  the 
light  of  habit,  and  of  opinions  which  prevailed  in  times 
of  darkness  and  despotism.  With  such  prepossessions, 
how  could  they  but  repel  the  zeul  of  Northern  reformers  } 

It  seems  to  be  thought  by  some  that  the  diversities  of 
character  between  the   South  and  North  unfit  them  for 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  339 

political  union.  That  diversities  exist  is  true  ;  but  they 
are  such  as  by  mutual  action  and  modification  may  ulti- 
mately form  a  greater  people.  It  is  by  the  fusion  of 
various  attributes  that  rich  and  noble  characters  are 
formed.  The  different  sections  of  our  country  need  to 
be  modified  by  one  another's  influence.  The  South  is 
ardent  ;  the  North  calmer  and  more  foreseeing.  The 
South  has  quicker  sympathies  ;  the  North  does  more 
good.  The  South  commits  the  individual  more  to  his 
own  arm  of  defence  ;  at  the  North  the  idea  of  law  has 
greater  sanctity.  The  South  has  a  freer  and  more 
graceful  bearing,  and  a  higher  aptitude  for  genial  social 
intercourse  ;  the  North  has  its  compensation  in  supe- 
rior domestic  virtues  and  enjoyments.  The  courage  of 
the  South  is  more  impetuous  ;  of  the  North  more  stub- 
born. The  South  has  more  of  the  self-glorifying  spirit 
of  the  French  ;  the  North,  like  England,  is  at  once  too 
proud  and  too  diffident  to  boast.  We  of  the  North  are 
a  more  awkward,  shy,  stift^,  and  steady  race,  with  a  lib- 
eral intermixture  of  enthusiasm,  enterprise,  reflection, 
and  quiet  heroism  ;  whilst  the  South  is  franker,  bolder, 
more  fervent,  more  brilliant,  and  of  course  more  attract- 
ive to  strangers,  and  more  fitted  for  social  influence. 

Such  comparisons  must,  indeed,  be  made  with  large 
allowances.  The  exceptions  to  the  common  character 
are  numerous  at  the  North  and  the  South,  and  the  shades 
of  distinction  are  growing  fainter.  But  climate,  that 
mysterious  agent  on  the  spirit,  will  never  suffer  these 
diversities  wholly  to  disappear  ;  nor  is  it  best  that  they 
should  be  lost.  A  nation  with  these  different  elements 
will  have  a  richer  history,  and  is  more  likely  to  adopt  a 
wise  and  liberal  policy  that  will  do  justice  to  our  whole 
nature.     The  diversities  between  the  two  sections  of  tl.e 


340  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

community  are  inducements,  rather  than  objections  to 
union  ;  for  narrow  and  homogeneous  communities  are 
apt  to  injure  and  degrade  themselves  by  stubborn  preju- 
dices, and  by  a  short-sighted,  selfish  concern  for  their 
special  interests  ;  and  it  is  well  for  them  to  form  con- 
nexions which  will  help  or  force  them  to  look  far  and 
wide,  to  make  compromises  and  sacrifices,  and  to  seek 
a  larger  good. 

We  have  a  strong  argument  for  continued  union  in  the 
almost  insuperable  difficulties  which  would  follow  its  dis- 
solution. To  the  young  and  inexperienced  the  forma- 
tion of  new  confederacies  and  new  governments  passes 
for  an  easy  task.  It  seems  to  be  thought  that  a  political 
union  may  be  got  up  as  easily  as  a  marriage.  But  love 
is  the  magician  which  levels  all  the  mountains  of  diffi- 
culty in  the  latter  case  ;  and  no  love,  too  often  nothing 
but  selfishness,  acts  in  the  former. 

Let  the  Union  be  dissolved,  and  new  federal  govern- 
ments must  be  framed  ;  and  we  have  little  reason  to 
anticipate  better  than  we  now  enjoy.  Not  that  our 
present  Constitution  is,  what  it  is  sometimes  called,  the 
perfection  of  political  skill.  It  is  the  first  experiment  of 
a  purely  representative  system  ;  and  first  experiments 
are  almost  necessarily  imperfect.  Future  ages  may  smile 
at  our  blameless  model  of  government.  A  more  skilful 
machinery,  more  effectual  checks,  wiser  distributions  and 
modifications  of  power,  are  probably  to  be  taught  the 
world  by  our  experience.  But  our  experience  has  as 
yet  been  too  short  to  bring  us  this  wisdom,  whilst  the 
circumstances  of  the  present  moment  are  any  thing  but 
propitious  to  an  improvement  on  the  work  of  our  fathers. 

The  work  of  framing  a  government,  even  in  favorable 
circumstances,  is  one  of  the  most  arduous  committed  to 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  341 

man.  The  construction  of  the  simplest  form  of  polity, 
or  of  institutions  for  a  single  community  in  rude  stages 
of  society,  demands  rare  wisdom  ;  and  accordingly  the 
renown  of  legislators  transcends  all  other  fame  in  his- 
tory. But  to  construct  a  government  for  a  confederacy 
of  states,  of  nations,  in  a  highly  complex  and  artificial 
state  of  society,  is  a  Herculean  task.  The  Federal 
Constitution  was  a  higher  achievement  than  the  assertion 
of  our  independence  in  the  field  of  battle.  If  we  can 
point  to  any  portion  of  our  history  as  indicating  a  spe- 
cial Divine  Providence,  it  was  the  consent  of  so  many 
communities  to  a  frame  of  government  combining  such 
provisions  for  human  rights  and  happiness  as  we  now 
enjoy. 

Break  up  this  Union,  reduce  these  States,  now  doub- 
led in  number,  to  a  fragmentary  form,  and  who  can  hope 
to  live  long  enough  to  see  a  harmonious  reconstruction 
of  them  into  new  confederacies  }  We  know  how  the 
present  Constitution  was  obstructed  by  the  jealousies 
and  passions  of  States  and  individuals.  But  if  these 
were  so  formidable  at  the  end  of  a  struggle  against  a 
common  foe  which  had  knit  all  hearts,  what  is  not  to 
be  dreaded  from  the  distrusts  w^hich  must  follow  the 
conflicts  and  exasperations  of  the  last  fifty  years,  and 
the  agony  of  separation  }  It  is  no  reproach  on  the  peo- 
ple to  say,  that  nearly  fifty  years  of  peace  and  trade 
and  ambition  and  prosperity  have  not  nourished  as  ar- 
dent a  patriotism  as  the  revolutionary  struggle  ;  for  this 
is  a  necessary  result  of  the  principles  of  human  nature. 
We  should  come  to  our  work  more  selfishly  than  our 
fathers  approached  theirs.  Our  interests,  too,  are  now 
more  complicated,  various,  interfering,  so  that  a  com- 
promise would  be  harder.  We  have  lost  much  of  the 
29* 


342  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

simplicity  of  a  former  time,  and  our  public  men  are 
greater  proficients  in  intrigue.  Were  there  natural  divis- 
ions of  the  country  which  would  determine  at  once  the 
new  arrangements  of  power,  the  difficulty  would  be 
less  ;  but  the  new  confederacies  would  be  sufficiently 
arbitrary  to  open  a  wide  field  to  selfish  plotters.  Who 
that  knows  the  obstacles  which  passion,  selfishness,  and 
corruption  throw  in  the  w^ay  of  a  settled  government 
will  desire  to  encounter  the  chances  and  perils  of  con- 
structing a  new  system  under  all  these  disadvantages  ? 

There  is  another  circumstance  which  renders  it  unde- 
sirable now  to  break  up  the  present  order  of  things. 
The  minds  of  men  everywhere  are  at  this  moment  more 
than  usually  unsettled.  There  is  much  questioning  of 
the  past  and  the  established,  and  a  disposition  to  push 
principles  to  extremes,  without  regard  to  the  modifica- 
tions which  other  principles  and  a  large  experience  de- 
mand. There  is  a  blind  confidence  in  the  power  of 
man's  will  and  wisdom  over  society,  an  overweening 
faith  in  legislation,  a  disposition  to  look  to  outward  ar- 
rangements for  that  melioration  of  human  affaiis  which 
can  come  only  from  the  culture  and  progress  of  the 
soul,  a  hope  of  making  by  machinery  what  is  and  must 
be  a  slow,  silent  growth.  Such  a  time  is  not  the  best 
for  constructing  governments  and  new  confederacies. 

We  are,  especially,  passing  though  a  stage  of  politi- 
cal speculation  or  opinion,  which  is,  indeed,  necessary 
under  such  institutions,  and  which  may  be  expected  to 
give  place  to  higher  wisdom,  but  which  is  not  the  most 
propitious  for  the  formation  of  political  institutions.  I 
refer  to  false  notions  as  to  democracy,  and  as  to  its  dis- 
tinctive benefits  ;  notions  which  ought  not  to  surprise 
us,  because  a  people  are  slow  to  learn  the  true   charac- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  343 

ter  and  spirit  of  their  institutions,  and  generally  acquire 
this,  as  all  other  knowledge,  by  some  painful  experience. 
It  is  a  common  notion  here,  as  elsewhere,  that  it  is  a 
grand  privilege  to  govern,  to  exercise  political  power  ; 
and  that  popular  institutions  have  this  special  benefit, 
that  they  confer  the  honor  and  pleasure  of  sovereignty 
on  the  greatest  number  possible.  The  people  are 
pleased  at  the  thought  of  being  rulers  ;  and  hence  all 
obstructions  to  their  immediate,  palpable  ruling  are  re- 
garded with  jealousy.  It  is  a  grand  thing,  they  fancy, 
to  have  their  share  of  kingship.  Now  this  is  wrong,  a 
pernicious  error.  It  is  no  privilege  to  govern,  but  a 
fearful  responsibility,  and  seldom  assumed  without  guilt. 
The  great  good  to  be  sought  and  hoped  from  popular 
institutions  is,  to  be  freed  from  unnecessary  rule,  to  be 
governed  with  no  reference  to  the  glory  or  gratification 
of  the  sovereign  power.  The  grand  good  of  popular 
institutions  is  Liberty,  or  the  protection  of  every  man's 
rights  to  the  full,  whh  the  least  possible  restraint.  Sov- 
ereignty, wherever  lodged,  is  not  a  thing  to  be  proud  of, 
or  to  be  stretched  a  hand's-breadth  beyond  need.  If  I 
am  to  be  hedged  in  on  every  side,  to  be  fretted  by  the 
perpetual  presence  of  arbitrary  will,  to  be  denied  the 
exercise  of  my  powers,  it  matters  nothing  to  me  wheth- 
er the  chain  is  laid  on  me  by  one  or  many,  by  king  or 
people.  A  despot  is  not  more  tolerable  for  his  many 
heads. 

Democracy,  considered  in  itself,  is  the  noblest  form 
of  government,  and  the  only  one  to  satisfy  a  man  who 
respects  himself  and  his  fellow-creatures.  But  if  its  ac- 
tual operation  be  regarded,  we  are  compelled  to  say  that 
it  works  very  imperfectly.  It  is  true  of  people,  as  it  is 
of  king  and  nobles,  that  they  have  no  great  capacity  of 


344  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

government.  They  ought  not  to  exult  at  the  thought 
of  being  rulers,  but  to  content  themselves  with  swaying 
the  sceptre  within  as  narrow  limits  as  the  public  safety 
may  require.  They  should  tremble  at  this  func:ion  of 
government,  should  exercise  it  with  self-distrust,  and  be 
humbled  by  the  defects  of  their  administration. 

I  am  not  impatient  of  law.  One  law  I  reverence  ; 
that  divine,  eternal  law  written  on  the  rational  soul,  and 
revealed  with  a  celestial  brightness  in  the  word  and  life 
of  Jesus  Christ.  But  human  rulers,  be  they  many  or 
few,  are  apt  to  pay  little  heed  to  this  law.  They  do  not 
easily  surrender  to  it  their  interests  and  ambition.  It  is 
dethroned  in  cabinets,  and  put  to  silence  in  halls  of  le- 
gislation. In  the  sphere  of  pohtics,  even  men  generally 
good  dispense  unscrupulously  with  a  pure  morality,  and 
of  consequence  we  all  have  an  interest  in  the  limitation 
of  political  power. 

Such  views  teach  us  that  one  of  the  first  lessons  to 
be  taught  to  a  people  in  a  democracy  is  self-distrust. 
They  should  learn  that  to  rule  is  the  most  difficult  work 
on  earth  ;  that  in  all  ages  and  countries  men  have  sunk 
under  the  temptations  and  difficulties  of  the  task  ;  that 
no  power  is  so  corrupting  as  public  power,  and  that 
none  should  be  used  with  greater  fear. 

By  democracy,  we  understand  that  a  people  governs 
itself  ;  and  the  primary,  fundamental  act  required  of  a 
people  is,  that  it  shall  lay  such  restraints  on  its  own 
powers  as  will  give  the  best  security  against  their  abuse. 
This  is  the  highest  purpose  of  a  popular  constitution. 
A  constitution  is  not  merely  a  machinery  for  ascertain- 
ing and  expressing  a  people's  will,  but  much  more  a 
provision  for  keeping  that  will  within  righteous  bounds. 
It  is  the  act  of  a  people  imposing  limits  on  itself,  setting 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  345 

guard  on  its  own  passions,  and  throwing  obstructions  in 
the  way  of  legislation,  so  as  to  compel  itself  to  pause, 
to  dehberate,  to  hear  all  remonstrances,  to  weigh  all 
rights  and  interests,  before  it  acts.  A  constitution  not 
framed  on  these  principles  must  fail  of  its  end.  Now  at 
the  present  moment  these  sound  maxims  have  lost  much 
of  their  authority.  The  people,  flattered  into  blind 
ness,  have  forgotten  their  passionateness,  and  proneness 
to  abuse  power.  The  wholesome  restraints  laid  by  the 
present  Constitution  on  popular  impulse  are  losing  their 
force,  and  we  have  reason  to  fear  that  new  constitutions 
formed  at  the  present  moment  would  want,  more  than 
our  present  national  charter,  the  checks  and  balances 
on  which  safety  depends. 

A  wise  man  knows  himself  to  be  weak,  and  lays 
down  rules  of  life  which  meet  his  peculiar  temptation. 
So  should  a  people  do.  A  people  is  in  danger  from 
fickleness  and  passion.  The  great  evil  to  be  feared  in 
a  popular  government  is  instability,  or  the  sacrifice  of 
great  principles  to  momentary  impulses.  A  constitution 
which  does  not  apply  checks  and  restraints  to  these  per- 
ils cannot  stand.  Our  present  Constitution  has  many 
wise  provisions  of  this  character.  The  division  of  the 
legislature  into  two  branches,  and  the  forms  which  retard 
legislation,  are  of  great  value.  But  what  constitutes  the 
peculiar  advantage  of  the  distinction  of  legislative  cham- 
bers is,  that  the  Senate  has  so  difierent  a  character  from 
the  House  of  Representatives  ;  that  it  represents  States, 
not  individuals  ;  that  it  is  chosen  by  legislatures,  not  by 
primary  assemblies  ;  and  that  the  term  of  a  senator's 
service  is  three  times  the  length  of  that  of  the  popular 
branch.  The  Senate  is  one  of  the  chief  conservative 
powers  in  the  government.     Tt  has  two  grand  functions  ; 


346  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

one  to  watch  the  rights  of  the  several  States,  and  the 
other,  not  less  important,  to  resist  the  fluctuations  of  the 
popular  branch.  The  Senate  is  a  power  raised  for  a 
time  by  the  people  above  their  own  passions,  that  it 
may  secure  stability  to  the  administration  of  affairs. 
Now  this  function  of  the  Senate  has  been  seriously  im- 
paired by  the  doctrine  of  ''  Instructions,"  a  doctrine 
destroying  moral  independence,  and  making  the  senator 
?-  f  assive  recipient  of  momentary  impulses  which  it  may 
be  his  highest  duty  to  withstand.  This  doctrine  is  in 
every  view  hurtful.  A  man  in  public  life  should  as  far 
as  possible  be  placed  under  influences  which  give  him 
dignity  of  mind,  self-respect,  and  a  deep  feeling  of  re- 
sponsibility. He  should  go  to  the  nation's  council  with  a 
mind  open  to  all  the  light  which  is  concentrated  there, 
to  study  and  promote  the  broad  interests  of  the  nation. 
He  is  not  to  work  as  a  mere  tool,  to  be  an  echo  of  the 
varying  voices  at  a  distance,  but  to  do  what  seems  to 
him  right,  and  to  answer  to  his  constituents  for  his  con- 
duct at  the  appointed  hour  for  yielding  up  his  trust. 
Yet  w^ere  new  institutions  to  be, framed  at  this  moment, 
would  not  the  people  forget  the  restraint  which  they 
should  impose  on  themselves,  and  the  respect  due  to 
their  delegates  ?  and,  from  attaching  a  foolish  self-im- 
portance to  the  act  of  governing,  would  they  not  give  to 
their  momentary  feelings  more  and  more  the  conduct 
of  public  afiairs  ? 

The  Constitution  contains  another  provision  of  wise 
self-distrust  on  the  part  of  the  people,  in  the  power  of 
the  veto  intrusted  to  the  President.  The  President  is 
the  only  representative  of  the  people's  unity.  He  is  the 
head  of  the  nation.  He  has  nothing  to  do  with  Districts 
or  States,  but  to  look  with  an  equal  eye  on   the  whole 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  347 

country.  To  him  is  intrusted  a  limited  negative  on  the 
two  chambers,  a  negative  not  simply  designed  to  guard 
his  own  power  from  encroachment,  but  to  correct  par- 
tial legislation,  and  to  be  a  barrier  against  invasions  of 
the  Constitution  by  extensive  combinations  of  interest  or 
ambition.  Every  department  should  be  a  check  on 
legislation  ;  but  this  salutary  power  there  is  a  disposition 
to  wrest  from  the  Executive,  and  it  would  hardly  find 
a  place  in  a  new  confederacy. 

The  grand  restraining,  conservative  power  of  the  state 
remains  to  be  mentioned  ;  it  is  the  Judiciary.  This  is 
worth  more  to  the  people  than  any  other  department. 
The  impartial  administration  of  a  good  code  of  laws  is 
the  grand  result,  the  paramount  good,  to  which  all  po- 
litical arrangements  should  be  subordinate.  The  reign 
of  justice,  which  is  the  reign  of  rights  and  liberty,  is 
the  great  boon  we  should  ask  from  the  state.  The  ju- 
dicial is  the  highest  function.  The  Chief  Justice  should 
rank  before  King  or  President.  The  pomp  of  a  palace 
may  be  dispensed  with  ;  but  every  imposing  solemnity 
consistent  with  the  simplicity  of  our  manners  should  be 
combined  in  the  hall  where  the  laws  which  secure  every 
man's  rights  are  administered.  To  accomplish  the  great 
end  of  government,  nothing  is  so  important  as  to  secure 
the  impartiality  and  moral  independence  of  judges  ; 
and  for  this  end  they  should  be  appointed  for  life,  sub- 
ject to  removal  only  for  violation  of  duty.  This  is  es- 
sential. A  judge  should  not  hang  on  the  smiles  of  king 
or  people.  In  him  the  people  should  erect  a  power 
above  their  own  temporary  will.  There  ought  to  be 
in  the  state  something  to  represent  the  majesty  of  that 
stable,  everlasting  law  to  which  all  alike  should  bow  ; 
some  power  above  the   sordid  interests,  and  aloof  from 


348  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATE& 

the  struggles  and  intrigues  of  ordinary  public  life.  The 
dependence  of  the  judge  on  the  breath  of  party  or  the 
fleeting  passions  of  the  people  is  a  deformity  in  the 
state,  for  which  no  other  excellence  in  popular  institu- 
tions can  make  compensation.  The  grandest  spectacle 
in  this  country  is  the  judiciary  power,  raised  by  the 
people  to  independence  of  parties  and  temporary  major- 
ities, taking  as  its  first  guide  the  national  charter,  the 
fundamental  law,  which  no  parties  can  touch,  which 
stands  like  a  rock  amidst  the  fluctuations  of  opinion,  and 
determining  by  this  the  validity  of  the  laws  enacted  by 
transient  legislatures.  Here  is  the  conservative  element 
of  the  country.  Yet  it  is  seriously  proposed  to  destroy 
the  independence  of  the  judiciary  power,  to  make  the 
judge  a  pensioner  on  party,  by  making  the  ofiice  elec- 
tive for  a  limited  time  ;  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  this 
pernicious  feature  might  be  impressed  on  new  institutions 
which  might  spring  up  at  the  present  time. 

This  language  will  not  win  me  the  name  of  Democrat. 
But  I  am  not  anxious  to  bear  any  name  into  which 
Government  enters  as  the  great  idea.  I  want  as  little 
government  as  consists  with  safety  to  the  rights  of  all. 
I  wish  the  people  to  govern  no  farther  than  they  must. 
I  wish  them  to  place  all  checks  on  the  legislature  which 
consist  with  its  efficiency.  I  honor  the  passion  for 
power  and  rule  as  little  in  the  people  as  in  a  king.  It 
is  a  vicious  principle,  exist  where  it  may.  If  by  de- 
mocracy be  meant  the  exercise  of  sovereignty  by  the 
people  under  all  those  provisions  and  self-imposed  re- 
straints which  tend  most  to  secure  equal  laws  and  the 
rights  of  each  and  all,  then  I  shall  be  proud  to  bear  its 
name.  But  the  unfettered  multitude  is  not  dearer  to 
me  than  the  unfettered   king.      iVnd  yet  at   the  present 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  349 

moment  there  is  a  tendency  to  remove  the  restraints  on 
which  the  wise  and  righteous  exertion  of  the  people's 
power  depends. 

The  sum  of  what  I  have  wished  to  say  is,  that  the 
union  of  these  Stales  should,  if  possible,  be  kept  invio- 
late, on  the  ground  of  the  immense  difficulty  of  con- 
structing new  confederacies  and  new  governments.  The 
present  state  of  men's  minds  is  not  favorable  to  this 
most  arduous  task.  Other  considerations  might  be  urged 
against  disunion.  But  in  all  this  I  do  not  mean  that 
union  is  to  be  held  fast  at  whatever  cost.  Vast  sacrifices 
should  be  made  to  it,  but  not  the  sacrifice  of  duty.  For 
one,  I  do  not  wish  it  to  continue,  if,  after  earnest,  faith- 
ful effort,  the  truth  should  be  made  clear,  that  the  Free 
States  are  not  to  be  absolved  from  giving  support  to 
slavery.  Better  that  we  should  part,  than  be  the  police 
of  the  slave-holder,  than  fight  his  battles,  than  wage 
war  to  uphold  an  oppressive  institution. 

So  I  say,  let  the  Union  be  dissevered  rather  than  re- 
ceive Texas  into  the  confederacy.  This  measure,  be- 
sides entailing  on  us  evils  of  all  sorts,  would  have  for  its 
chief  end  to  bring  the  whole  country  under  the  slave- 
power,  to  make  the  general  government  the  agent  of 
slavery  ;  and  this  we  are  bound  to  resist  at  all  hazards. 
The  Free  States  should  declare  that  the  very  act  of  ad- 
mitting Texas  will  be  construed  as  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union. 

This  act  would  be  unconstitutional.  The  authors  of 
the  Constitution  never  dreamed  of  conferring  a  power 
on  Congress  to  attach  a  foreign  nation  to  the  country, 
and  so  to  destroy  entirely  the  original  balance  of  power. 
It  is  true,  that  the  people  acquiesced  in  the  admission 
of  Louisiana  to  the  Union  by  treaty  ;  but  the  necessity 

VOL.  VI.  30 


350  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

of  the  case  reconciled  them  to  that  dangerous  precedent. 
It  was  understood,  that,  by  fair  means  or  foul,  by  nego- 
tiation or  war,  the  Western  States  would  and  must  pos- 
sess themselves  of  the  Mississippi  and  New  Orleans. 
This  was  regarded  as  a  matter  of  life  or  death  ;  and 
therefore  the  people  allowed  this  great  inroad  to  take 
place  in  the  fundamental  conditions  of  the  union,  without 
the  appeal  which  ought  to  have  been  made  to  the  several 
State  sovereignties.  But  no  such  necessity  now  exists, 
and  a  like  action  of  Congress  ought  to  be  repelled  as 
gross  usurpation. 

We  are  always  in  danger  of  excessive  jealousy  in 
judging  of  the  motives  of  other  parts  of  the  country,  and 
this  remark  may  apply  to  the  present  case.  The  South, 
if  true  to  its  own  interests,  would  see  in  Texas  a  rival 
rather  than  an  ally  ;  but  at  the  North  it  is  suspected 
that  political  motives  outweigh  the  economical.  It  is 
suspected  that  the  desire  of  annexing  Texas  has  been 
whetted  by  the  disclosures  of  the  last  census  as  to  the 
increase  of  population  and  wealth  at  the  North.  The 
South,  it  is  said,  means  to  balance  the  Free  States  by 
adding  a  new  empire  to  the  confederacy.  But  on  this 
point  our  slave-holding  brethren  need  not  be  anxious. 
Without  Texas,  the  South  will  have  very  much  its  own 
way,  and  will  continue  to  exert  a  disproportionate  influ- 
ence over  public  affairs.  It  has  within  itself  elements 
of  political  power  more  efficient  than  ours.  The  South 
has  abler  politicians,  and  almost  necessarily,  because  its 
most  opulent  class  make  politics  the  business  of  life. 
The  North  may  send  wnser  statesmen  to  Congress,  but 
not  men  to  marshal  and  govern  parties,  not  political 
leaders.  The  South  surpasses  us,  not  in  true  eloquence, 
which   is   little   known   anywhere,   but  in    prompt,   bold 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  35 1 

speech,  a  superiority  due  not  only  to  greater  ardor  of 
feeling,  but  to  a  state  of  society  encouraging  the  habit, 
and  stimulating  by  constant  action  the  faculty  of  free 
and  strong  utterance  on  political  subjects  ;  and  such  elo- 
quence is  no  mean  power  in  popular  bodies.  The 
South  has  a  bolder  and  more  unscrupulous  character, 
for  which  the  caution  and  prudence  of  the  North  are 
not  a  match.  Once  more,  it  has  union,  common  feel- 
ing, a  peculiar  bond  in  slavery,  to  which  the  divided 
North  can  make  no  adequate  opposition.  At  the  North 
politics  occupy  a  second  place  in  men's  minds.  Even 
in  what  we  call  seasons  of  public  excitement  the  people 
think  more  of  private  business  than  of  public  affairs. 
We  think  more  of  property  than  of  political  power  ; 
and  this,  indeed,  is  the  natural  result  of  free  institutions. 
Under  these  political  power  is  not  suffered  to  accumu- 
late in  a  few  hands,  but  is  distributed  in  minute  portions  ; 
and  even  when  thus  limited,  it  is  not  permitted  to  en- 
dure, but  passes  in  quick  rotation  from  man  to  man. 
Of  consequence,  it  is  an  inferior  good  to  property. 
Every  wise  man  among  us  looks  on  property  as  a  more 
sure  and  lasting  possession  to  himself  and  his  family,  as 
conferring  more  abihty  to  do  good,  to  gratify  generous 
and  refined  tastes,  than  the  possession  of  pohtical  power. 
In  the  South  an  unnatural  state  of  things  turns  men's 
thoughts  to  pohtical  ascendancy  ;  but  in  the  Free  States 
men  think  little  of  it.  Property  is  the  good  for  which 
they  toil  perseveringly  from  morning  to  night.  Even 
the  political  partisan  among  us  has  an  eye  to  property, 
and  seeks  office  as  the  best,  perhaps  only  way  of  sub- 
sistence. In  this  state  of  things,  the  South  has  little  to 
fear  from  the  North.  For  one  thing  we  may  contend, 
that  is,  for  a  tariff,  for  protection  to  our  moneyed   in- 


352  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

terests  ;  but  if  we  may  be  left  to  work  and  thrive,  we 
shall  not  quarrel  for  power. 

The  little  sensibility  at  the  North  to  the  present  move- 
ments on  the  subject  of  Texas  is  the  best  commentary 
on  the  spirit  of  the  Free  States.  That  the  South 
should  be  suffered  to  think  for  a  moment  of  adding  a 
great  country  to  the  United  States  for  the  sake  of 
strengthening  slavery  demonstrates  an  absence  of  wise 
political  jealousy  at  the  North  to  which  no  parallel  can 
be  found  in  human  history. 

The  union  of  Texas  to  us  must  be  an  unmixed  evil. 
We  do  not  need  it  on  a  single  account.  We  are  already 
too  large.  The  machine  of  government  hardly  creeps 
on  under  the  weight  of  so  many  diverse  interests  and 
such  complex  functions  as  burden  it  now.  Our  own 
natural  increase  is  already  too  rapid.  New  States  are 
springing  up  too  fast  ;  for  in  these  there  must  exist, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  an  excess  of  adventurous, 
daring  spirits,  whose  influence  over  the  government  can- 
not but  be  perilous  for  a  time  ;  and  it  is  madness  to  add 
to  us  a  new  nation  to  increase  the  wild  impulses,  the 
half  civilized  forces,  which  now  mingle  with  our  national 
legislation. 

To  unite  with  Texas  would  be  to  identify  ourselves 
with  a  mighty  wrong  ;  for  such  was  the  seizure  of  that 
province  by  a  horde  of  adventurers.  It  would  be  to 
insure  the  predominance  of  the  slave-power,  to  make 
slavery  a  chief  national  interest,  and  to  pledge  us  to  the 
continually  increasing  prostitution  of  the  national  power 
to  its  support.  It  would  be  to  begin  a  career  of  en- 
croachment on  Mexico  which  would  corrupt  and  dis- 
honor us,  would  complicate  and  disturb  the  movements 
of  government,  would  create  a  wasteful   patronage,  and 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  353 

enlarge  our  miliiary  establishments.  It  would  be  to 
plunge  us  into  war,  not  only  with  Mexico,  but  with 
foreign  powers,  which  will  not  quietly  leave  us  to  add 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  our  vast  stretch  of  territory  along 
the  Atlantic  coast. 

To  unite  Texas  to  ourselves  would  be  to  destroy  our 
present  unity  as  a  people,  to  sow  new  seeds  of  jealousy. 
It  would  be  to  spread  beyond  bounds   the  space  over 
which  the  national  arm   must  be  extended  ;  to  present 
new  points  of  attack  and  new  reasons  for  assault,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  impair  the  energy  to  resist  them.     Can 
the  Free  States  consent  to  pour  out  their  treasure  and 
blood  Hke  water  in  order  to  defend  against  Mexico  and 
her  European  protectors  the  slave-trodden  fields  of  dis- 
tant Texas  ?     Would  the   South  be  prompt  to  exhaust 
itself  for  the  annexation  to  this  country  of  the  vast  Brit- 
ish possessions  of  the  North  ?    Is  it  ready  to  pledge  itself 
to  carry  the  "star-spangled  banner"  to  the  pole,  in  ex- 
change for  our  readiness  to  carry  slavery  to  Darien  ? 
There  must  be  some  fixed  limits  to  our  country.     We 
at  the  North  do  not  ask  for  Canada.     We  would  not,  I 
hope,  accept  it  as  a  gift  ;  for  we  could  not  rule  it  well. 
And  is  the    country  to  spread    itself  in  one   direction 
alone  ?    Are  we  willing  to  place  ourselves  under  the  rule 
of  adventurers  whom  a  restless  spirit  or  a  dread  of  jus- 
tice  drives   to   Texas  ?     What   possible   boon   can  we 
gain  ?     The  Free   States  are  not  only  wanting  in  com- 
mon wisdom,  but  in  those  instincts  by  which  other  com- 
munities shrink  from  connexions  that  diminish  their  im- 
portance and  neutralize  their  power.     We  shall  deserve 
to  be  put  under  guardianship,  if  we  receive  Texas  to  our 
embrace.      Such  suicidal  policy  would  place  us  among 
those  whom  "God  infatuates  before  he  destroys." 
30* 


iJ54  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

I  have  now  spoken  of  the  National  Union,  and  of  the 
danger  to  which  it  is  exposed.  The  duty  of  the  Free 
States  is,  to  keep  their  attachment  to  it  unimpaired  by 
local  partialities,  jealousies,  and  dislikes,  by  supposed 
inequalities  of  benefits  or  burdens,  or  by  the  want  of  self- 
restraint  manifested  in  the  other  part  of  the  country. 
They  cannot,  however,  but  see  and  feel  one  immense 
deduction  from  its  blessings.  They  are  bound  by  it  to 
give  a  degree  of  sanction  and  support  to  slavery,  and  are 
threatened  with  the  annexation  of  another  country  to  our 
own  for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  this  institution. 
Their  duty  is,  to  insist  on  release  from  all  obligations, 
and  on  security  against  all  connexions,  which  do  or  may 
require  them  to  uphold  a  system  which  they  condemn. 
No  blessings  of  the  Union  can  be  a  compensation  for 
taking  part  in  the  enslaving  of  our  fellow-creatures  ;  nor 
ought  this  bond  to  be  perpetuated,  if  experience  shall 
demonstrate  that  it  can  only  continue  through  our  par- 
ticipation in  wrong-doing.  To  this  conviction  the  Free 
States  are  tending  ;  and  in  this  view  their  present  subser- 
viency to  the  interests  of  slavery  is  more  endurable. 

I  proceed,  in  the  last  place,  to  offer  a  few  remarks  on 
the  Duties  of  the  Free  States  as  to  a  subject  of  infinite 
importance,  the  subject  of  War.  To  add  to  the  dis- 
tresses of  the  country,  a  war-cry  is  raised  ;  and  a  person 
unaccustomed  to  the  recklessness  with  which  the  pas- 
sions of  the  moment  break  out  among  us  in  conversation 
and  the  newspapers  would  imagine  that  we  were  on  the 
brink  of  a  conflict  with  the  most  powerful  nation  on 
earth.  That  we  are  indeed  to  fight  cannot  easily  be 
believed.  That  two  nations  of  a  common  origin,  having 
so  many  common  interests,  united  by  so  many  bonds, 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  355 

speaking  one  language,  breathing  the  same  free  spirit, 
holding^the  same  faith,  to  whom  war  can  bring  no  good, 
and  on  whom  it  must  inflict  terrible  evils  ;  that  such  na- 
tions should  expose  themselves  and  the  civihzed  world 
to  the  chances,  crimes,  and  miseries  of  war,  for  the  set- 
tlement of  questions  which  may  be  adjusted  honorably 
and  speedily  by  arbitration  ;  this  implies  such  an  absence 
of  common  sense,  as  well  as  of  moral  and  religious  prin- 
ciple, that,  bad  as  the  world  is,  one  can  hardly  believe, 
without  actual  vision,  that  such  a  result  can  take  place. 
Yet  the  history  of  the  world,  made  up  of  war,  teaches  us 
that  we  may  be  too  secure  ;  and  no  excitement  of  war- 
like feeling  should  pass  without  a  word  of  warning. 

In  speaking  of  our  duties  on  this  subject  I  can  use 
but  one  language,  that  of  Christianity.  I  do  believe  that 
Christianity  was  meant  to  be  a  law  for  society,  meant 
to  act  on  nations  ;  and,  however  I  may  be  smiled  at  for 
my  ignorance  of  men  and  things,  I  can  propose  no  stand- 
ard of  action  to  individuals  or  communities  but  the  law 
of  Christ,  the  law  of  Eternal  Rectitude,  the  law,  not 
only  of  this  nation,  but  of  all  worlds. 

/the  great  duty  of  God's  children  is,  to  love  one  an-  v 
other.  This  duty  on  earth  takes  the  name  and  form  of 
the  law  of  humanity :>  We  are  to  recognize  all  men  as 
brethren,  no  matter  where  born,  or  under  what  sky,  or 
institution,  or  religion,  they  may  live.  Every  man  be- 
longs to  the  race,  and  owes  a  duty  to  mankind.  Every 
nation  belongs  to  the  family  of  nations,  and  is  to  desire 
the  good  of  all.  Nations  are  to  love  one  another.  It 
is  true  that  they  usually  adopt  towards  one  another  prin- 
ciples of  undisguised  selfishness,  and  glory  in  successful 
violence  or  fraud.  But  the  great  law  of  humanity  is  un- 
repealed.    Men  cannot  vote  this  out  of  the  universe  by 


356  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

acclamation.  The  Christian  precepts,  "Do  to  others 
as  you  would  they  should  do  to  you,"  "Love  your 
neighbour  as  yourself,"  "Love  your  enemies,"  apply 
to  nations  as  well  as  individuals.  A  nation  renouncing 
them  is  a  heathen,  not  a  Christian  nation.  Men  cannot 
by  combining  themselves  into  narrower  or  larger  socie- 
ties sever  the  sacred,  blessed  bond  which  joins  them  to 
their  kind.  An  evil  nation,  like  an  evil  man,  may,  in- 
deed, be  withstood,  but  not  in  hatred  and  revenge.  The 
law  of  humanity  must  reign  over  the  assertion  of  all  hu- 
man rights.  The  vindictive,  unforgiving  spirit  which 
prevails  in  the  earth  must  yield  to  the  mild,  impartial 
spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  know  that  these  principles  will  receive  little  hearty 
assent.  Multitudes  who  profess  to  believe  in  Christ 
have  no  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  his  spirit,  or  in  the  ac- 
complishment of  that  regenerating  work  which  he  came 
to  accomplish.  There  is  a  worse  skepticism  than  what 
passes  under  the  name  of  infidelity,  a  skepticism  as  to 
the  reality  and  the  power  of  moral  and  Christian  truth  ; 
and  accordingly  a  man  who  calls  on  a  nation  to  love  the 
great  family  of  which  it  is  a  part,  to  desire  the  weal  and 
the  progress  of  the  race,  to  blend  its  own  interests  with 
the  interests  of  all,  to  wish  well  to  its  foes,  must  pass 
for  a  visionary,  perhaps  in  war  would  be  called  a  traitor. 
The  first  teacher  of  Universal  Love  was  nailed  to  the 
cross  for  withstanding  the  national  spirit,  hopes,  and  pre- 
judices of  Judea.  His  followers,  in  these  better  days, 
escape  with  silent  derision  or  neglect. 

It  is  a  painful  thought,  that  our  relations  to  foreign 
countries  are  determined  chiefly  by  men  who  are  signally 
wanting  in  reverence  for  the  law  of  Christ,  the  law  of 
humanity.     Should  we  repair  to  the  seat  of  government, 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  357 

and  listen  to  the  debates  of  Congress,  we  should  learn 
that  the  ascendant  influence  belongs  to  men  who  have  no 
comprehension  of  the  mild  and  generous  spirit  of  our  re- 
ligion ;  who  exult  in  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  a 
quick  sense  of  honor,  which  means  a  promptness  to  re- 
sent, and  a  spirit  of  vengeance.  And  shall  Christians 
imbrue  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  their  brethren  at  the 
bidding  of  such  men  .'' 

At  this  moment  our  chief  exposure  to  war  arises  from 
sensibility  to  what  is  called  the  honor  of  the  nation.  A 
nation  cannot,  indeed,  be  too  jealous  of  its  honor.  But, 
unhappily,  few  communities  know  what  this  means. 
There  is  but  one  true  honor  for  men  or  nations.  This 
consists  in  impartial  justice  and  generosity  ;  in  acting  up 
fearlessly  to  a  high  standard  of  Right.  The  multitude 
of  men  place  it  chiefly  in  courage  ;  and  in  this,  as  in  all 
popular  delusions,  there  is  a  glimpse  of  truth.  Courage 
is  an  essential  element  of  true  honor.  A  nation  or  an 
individual  without  it  is  nothing  worth.  Almost  any  thing 
is  better  than  a  craven  spirit.  Better  be  slaughtered 
than  be  cowardly  and  tame.  What  is  the  teaching  of 
Christianity  but  that  we  must  be  ready  at  any  moment 
lo  lay  down  life  for  truth,  humanity,  and  virtue  .''  All 
the  virtues  are  naturally  brave.  The  just  and  disinter- 
ested man  dreads  nothing  that  man  can  do  to  him.  But 
courage  standing  alone,  animal  courage,  the  courage  of 
the  robber,  pirate,  or  duellist,  this  has  no  honor.  This 
only  proves  that  bad  passions  are  strong  enough  to  con- 
quer the  passion  of  fear.  Yet  this  low  courage  is  that 
of  which  nations  chiefly  boast,  and  in  which  they  make 
their  honor  to  consist. 

Were  the  spirit  of  justice  and  humanity  to  pervade 
this  country,  we  could  not  be  easily  driven  into  war. 


358  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

England  and  Mexico,  the  countries  with  which  we  are 
in  danger  of  being  embroiled,  have  an  interest  in  peace. 
The  questions  on  which  we  are  at  issue  touch  no  vital 
point,  no  essential  interest  or  right,  which  we  may  not 
put  to  hazard  ;  and  consequently  they  are  such  as  may 
and  ought  to  be  left  to  arbitration. 

There  has  of  late  been  a  cry  of  war  with  Mexico  ; 
and  yet,  if  the  facts  are  correctly  stated  in  the  papers,  a 
more  unjust  war  cannot  be  conceived.  It  seems  that  a 
band  of  Texans  entered  the  territory  of  Mexico  during 
a  state  of  war  between  the  two  countries.  They  entered 
it  armed.  They  w^ere  met  and  conquered  by  a  Mexican 
force  ;  and  certain  American  citizens,  found  in  the  num- 
ber, were  seized  and  treated  as  prisoners  of  war.  This 
is  pronounced  an  injury  which  the  nation  is  bound  to  re- 
sent. We  are  told  that  the  band  in  which  the  Ameri- 
cans were  found  was  engaged  in  a  trading,  not  a  military 
expedition.  Such  a  statement  is,  of  course,  very  sus- 
picious ;  but  allow  it  to  be  true.  Must  not  the  entrance 
of  an  armed  band  from  one  belligerent  country  into  the 
other  be  regarded  as  a  hostile  invasion  ?  Must  not  a 
citizen  of  a  neutral  state,  if  found  in  this  armed  compa- 
ny, be  considered  as  a  party  to  the  invasion  ?  Has  he 
not,  with  eyes  open,  engaged  in  an  expedition  which  can- 
not but  be  regarded  as  an  act  of  war  ?  That  our  nation 
should  demand  the  restoration  of  such  a  person  as  a  right, 
which  must  not  be  denied  without  the  hazard  of  a  war, 
would  seem  to  show  that  we  have  studied  international 
law  in  a  new  edition,  revised  and  corrected  for  our 
special  benefit.  It  is  the  weakness  of  Mexico  which 
encourages  these  freedoms  on  our  part.  Yet  their 
weakness  is  a  claim  on  our  compassion.  We  ought  to 
look  on  that  distracted  country  as  an  older  brother  on  a 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  359 

wayward  child,  and  should  blush  to  make  our  strength 
a  ground  for  aggression. 

There  is  another  ground,  we  are  told,  for  war  with 
Mexico.  She  has  treated  our  citizens  cruelly,  as  well 
as  made  them  prisoners  of  war.  She  has  condemned 
them  to  ignominious  labor  in  the  streets.  This  is  not 
unlikely.  Mexico  sets  up  no  pretension  to  signal  hu- 
manity, nor  has  it  been  fostered  by  her  history.  Per- 
haps, however,  she  is  only  following,  with  some  exagger- 
ations, the  example  of  Texas  ;  for  after  the  great  victory 
of  San  Jacinto  we  were  told  that  the  Texans  set  their 
prisoners  to  work.  At  the  worst,  here  is  no  cause  for 
war.  If  an  American  choose  to  take  part  in  the  hostile 
movements  of  another  nation,  he  must  share  the  fate  of 
its  citizens.  If  Mexico  indeed  practises  cruelties  to- 
wards her  prisoners,  of  whatever  country,  we  are  bound 
by  the  law  of  humanity  to  remonstrate  against  them  ; 
but  we  must  not  fight  to  reform  her.  The  truth,  how- 
ever, is,  that  we  can  place  no  great  reliance  on  what  we 
hear  of  Mexican  cruelty.  The  press  of  Texas  and  the 
South,  in  its  anxiety  to  involve  us  in  war  with  that  coun- 
try, does  not  speak  under  oath.  In  truth,  no  part  of 
our  country  seems  to  think  of  Mexico  as  having  the 
rights  of  a  sovereign  state.  We  hear  the  politician  in 
high  places  exhorting  us  to  take  part  in  raising  ''the 
single  Star  of  Texas  "  above  the  city  of  Montezuma, 
and  to  gorge  ourselves  with  the  plunder  of  her  churches  ; 
and  we  see  armed  bands  from  the  South  hurrying  in 
time  of  peace  towards  that  devoted  land,  to  realize  these 
dreams  of  unprincipled  cupidity.  That  Mexico  is  more 
sinned  against  than  sinning,  that  she  is  as  just  as  her 
foes,  one  can  hardly  help  believing. 

We  proceed   to  consider  our   difficulties  with   Great 


360  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

Britain,  which  are  numerous  enough  to  alarm  us,  but 
which  are  all  of  a  character  to  admit  arbitration.  The 
first  is  the  Northeast  boundary  question.  This,  indeed, 
may  be  said  to  be  settled  in  the  minds  of  the  people. 
As  a  people,  we  have  no  doubt  that  the  letter  of  the 
treaty  marks  out  the  line  on  which  we  insist.  The 
great  majority  also  believe  that  England  insists  on  anoth- 
er, not  from  respect  for  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty, 
but  because  she  needs  it  to  secure  a  communication  be- 
tween her  various  provinces.  The  land,  then,  is  legally 
ours,  and  ought  not  to  be  surrendered  to  any  force. 
But  in  this,  as  in  other  cases,  we  are  bound  by  the  law 
of  humanity  to  look  beyond  the  letter  of  stipulations,  to 
inquire,  not  for  legal,  but  for  moral  right,  and  to  act  up 
to  the  principles  of  an  enlarged  justice  and  benevolence. 
The  territory  claimed  by  England  is  of  great  importance 
to  her  ;  of  none,  comparatively,  to  us  ;  and  we  know, 
that,  when  the  treaty  was  framed,  no  thought  existed  on 
either  side  of  carrying  the  line  so  far  to  the  North  as  to 
obstruct  the  free  and  safe  communication  between  her 
provinces.  The  country  was  then  unexplored.  The 
precise  effect  of  the  stipulation  could  not  be  foreseen. 
It  was  intended  to  secure  a  boundary  advantageous  to 
both  parties  Under  these  circumstances  the  law  of 
equity  and  humanity  demands  that  Great  Britain  be  put 
in  possession  of  the  territory  needed  to  connect  her 
provinces  together.  Had  nations  risen  at  all  to  the  idea 
of  generosity  in  their  mutual  dealings,  this  country  might 
be  advised  to  present  to  England  the  land  she  needs. 
But  prudence  will  stop  at  the  suggestion,  that  we  ought 
to  offer  it  to  her  on  terms  which  impartial  men  may 
pronounce  just.  And  in  doing  this  we  should  not  mere- 
ly consult  equity  and  honor,  but  our  best  interest.     It 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  361 

is  the  interest  of  a  nation  to  establish,  on  all  sides, 
boundaries  which  will  be  satisfactory  alike  to  itself  and 
its  neighbours.  This  is  almost  essential  to  enduring 
peace.  Wars  have  been  waged  without  number  for  the 
purpose  of  uniting  the  scattered  provinces  of  a  country, 
of  giving  it  compactness,  unity,  and  the  means  of  com- 
munication. A  nation  prizing  peace  should  remove  the 
irritations  growing  out  of  unnatural  boundaries  ;  and  this 
we  can  do  in  the  present  case  without  a  sacrifice. 

According  to  these  views  one  of  the  most  unwise 
measures  ever  adopted  in  this  country  was  the  rejection 
of  the  award  of  the  King  of  the  Netherlands.  A  better 
award  could  not  have  been  given.  It  ceded  for  us  what 
a  wise  policy  teaches  us  to  surrender,  gave  us  a  natural 
boundary,  and  gave  us  compensation  for  the  territory  to 
be  surrendered.  If  now  some  friendly  power  would  by 
its  mediation  effectually  recommend  to  the  two  coun- 
tries this  award  as  the  true  interest  of  both,  it  would 
render  signal  service  to  justice  and  humanity. 

Still,  it  is  true  that  the  territory  that  we  claim  is  ours. 
The  bargain  made  by  England  was  a  hard  one  ;  but  an 
honest  man  does  not  on  this  account  shrink  from  his 
contract  ;  nor  can  England  lay  hands  on  what  she  un- 
wisely surrendered,  without  breach  of  faith,  without 
committing  herself  to  an  unrighteous  war. 

A  way  of  compromise  in  a  case  like  this  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  honest  and  friendly  nations.  For  example,  let 
impartial  and  intelligent  commissioners,  agreed  to  by 
both  countries,  repair  to  the  disputed  territory  with  the 
treaty  in  their  hands,  and  with  the  surveys  made  by  the 
two  governments  ;  and  let  them  go  with  full  authority  to 
determine  the  line  which  the  treaty  prescribes,  to  draw 
another  line,   if  such  shall    seem   to  them   required  by 

VOL.    VI.  31 


362  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

principles  of  equity,  or  by  the  true  interests  of  both 
countries,  and  to  make  ample  compensation  to  the  na- 
tion which  shall  relinquish  part  of  its  territory.  It  is 
believed,  that,  generally  speaking,  men  of  distinguished 
honor,  integrity,  and  ability  would  execute  a  trust  of 
this  nature  more  wisely,  impartially,  and  speedily  than  a 
third  government,  and  that  the  employment  of  such 
would  facilitate  the  extension  of  arbitration  to  a  greater 
variety  of  cases  than  can  easily  be  comprehended  under 
the  present  system.  I  have  suggested  one  mode  of 
compromise.  Others  and  better  may  be  devised,  if  the 
parties  will  approach  the  difficulty  in  a  spirit  of  peace. 

The  case  of  the  Caroline  next  presents  itself.  In 
this  case  our  territory  was  undoubtedly  violated  by  Eng- 
land. But  the  question  arises,  whether  nothing  justified 
or  mitigated  the  violation.  According  to  the  law  of  na- 
tions, when  a  government  is  unable  to  restrain  its  sub- 
jects from  continued  acts  of  hostility  towards  a  neigh- 
bouring state,  this  state  is  authorized  to  take  the  defence 
of  its  rights  into  its  own  hands,  and  may  enter  the  terri- 
tory of  the  former  power  with  such  a  force  as  may  be 
required  to  secure  itself  against  aggression.  The  ques- 
tion is.  Did  such  a  state  of  things  exist  on  the  Cana- 
dian frontier  ?  That  we  Americans,  if  placed  in  the 
condition  of  the  EngHsh,  would  have  done  as  they  did 
admits  httle  doubt.  This,  indeed,  is  no  justification  of 
the  act  ;  for  both  nations  in  this  condition  would  act 
more  from  impulse  than  reason.  But  it  shows  us  that 
the  question  is  a  complicated  one  ;  such  a  question  as 
even  well-disposed  nations  cannot  easily  settle  by  nego- 
tiation, and  which  may  and  ought  to  be  committed  to  an 
impartial  umpire. 

I  will  advert  to  one  more  difficulty  between  this  coun- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  363 

try  and  England,  which  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
subject  of  this  Tract.  I  refer  to  the  question,  whether 
England  may  visit  our  vessels  to  ascertain  their  nation- 
ality, in  cases  where  the  American  flag  is  suspected  of 
being  used  by  foreigners  for  the  prosecution  of  the  slave- 
trade.  On  this  subject  we  have  two  duties  to  perform. 
One  is,  to  protect  our  commerce  against  claims  on  the 
part  of  other  nations,  which  may  silently  be  extended, 
and  may  expose  it  to  interference  and  hinderance  injuri- 
ous alike  to  our  honor  and  prosperity.  The  other,  not 
less  clear  and  urgent,  is,  to  afford  effectual  assistance  to 
the  great  struggle  of  European  nations  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  slave-trade,  and  especially  to  prevent  our 
flag  from  being  made  a  cover  for  the  nefarious  traffic. 
These  are  two  duties  which  we  can  and  must  reconcile. 
We  must  not  say  that  the  slave-trade  is  to  be  left  to  it- 
self, and  that  we  have  no  obligation  to  take  part  in  its 
abolition.  We  cannot  without  shame  and  guilt  stand 
neutral  in  this  war.  The  slave-trade  is  an  enormous 
crime,  a  terrible  outrage  on  humanity,  an  accumulation 
of  unparalleled  wrongs  and  woes,  and  the  civilized  world 
is  waking  up  to  bring  it  to  an  end.  Every  nation  is 
bound  by  the  law  of  humanity  to  give  its  sympathies, 
prayers,  and  cooperation  to  this  work.  Even  had  our 
commerce  no  connexion  with  this  matter,  we  should  be 
bound  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  the  cause  of  the  human 
race.  But  the  fact  is,  that  the  flag  of  our  country, 
prostituted  by  infamous  foreigners,  is  a  principal  shelter 
to  the  slave-trade.  Vile  men  wrap  themselves  up  in 
our  garments,  and  in  this  guise  go  forth  to  the  work  of 
robbery  and  murder.  Shall  we  suffer  this  .'*  Shall  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  when  about  to  seize  these  outlaws, 
be    forbidden   to    touch    them,  because   they    wear    the 


364  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

American  garb  ?  Jt  is  said,  indeed,  that  foreign  pow- 
ers, if  allowed  to  visit  our  vessels  for  such  a  purpose, 
will  lay  hands  on  our  own  citizens,  and  invade  our  com- 
mercial rights.  But  vague  suspicions  of  this  kind  do 
not  annul  a  plain  obligation.  Uncertain  consequences 
do  not  set  aside  what  we  know  ;  and  one  thing  we  know, 
that  the  slave-trade  ought  not  to  be  left  to  live  and  grow 
under  the  American  flag.  We  are  bound  some  way  or 
other  to  stay  this  evil.  We  ought  to  say  to  Europe  : 
"  We  detest  this  trade  as  much  as  you.  W^e  will  join 
heart  and  hand  in  its  destruction.  We  will  assent  to 
the  mutual  visitation  which  you  plead  for,  if  arrange- 
ments can  be  made  to  secure  it  against  abuse.  We  will 
make  sacrifices  for  this  end.  We  will  shrink  from  no 
reasonable  concession.  Your  efforts  shall  not  be  frus- 
trated by  the  prostitution  of  our  flag."  If  in  good  faith 
we  follow  up  these  w^ords,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that 
a  safe  and  honorable  arrangement  may  be  made  with  for- 
eign powers. 

Some  of  our  politicians  protest  vehemently  against 
the  visitation  of  vessels  bearing  our  flag  for  the  purpose 
of  determining  their  right  to  assume  it.  They  admit 
that  there  are  cases,  such  as  suspicion  of  piracy,  in 
which  such  visitation  is  authorized  by  the  law  of  nations. 
But  this  right,  they  say,  cannot  be  extended  at  pleasure, 
by  the  union  of  several  nations  in  treaties  or  conventions 
which  can  only  be  executed  by  visiting  the  vessels  of 
other  powers.  This  is  undoubtedly  true.  Nations,  by 
union  for  private  advantage,  have  no  right  to  subject  the 
ships  of  other  powers  to  inconvenience,  or  to  the  possi- 
bility of  molestation,  in  order  to  compass  their  purpose. 
But  when  several  nations  join  together  to  extirpate  a 
widely  extended  and  flagrant  crime  against  the  human 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  365 

race,  to  put  down  a  public  and  most  cruel  wrong,  they 
have  a  right  to  demand  that  their  labors  shall  not  be 
frustrated  by  the  fraudulent  assumption  of  the  flags  of 
foreign  powers.  Subjecting  their  own  ships  to  visita- 
tion as  a  means  of  preventing  this  abuse  of  their  flags, 
they  are  authorized  to  expect  a  like  subjection  from 
other  states,  on  condition  that  they  proffer  every  possible 
security  against  the  abuse  of  the  power.  A  state,  in  de- 
clining such  visitation,  virtually  withdraws  itself  from  the 
commonwealth  of  nations.  Christian  states  may  be  said, 
without  any  figure,  to  form  a  commonwealth.  They  are 
bound  together  by  a  common  faith,  the  first  law  of  which 
is  universal  good-will.  They  recognize  mutual  obliga- 
tions. They  are  united  by  interchange  of  material  and 
intellectual  products.  Through  their  common  religion 
and  literature,  and  their  frequent  intercourse,  they  have 
attained  to  many  moral  sympathies  ;  and  when  by  these 
any  portion  of  them  are  united  in  the  execution  of  jus- 
tice against  open,  fearful  crime,  they  have  a  right  to  the 
good  wishes  of  all  other  states  ;  and  especially  a  right  to 
be  unobstructed  by  them  in  their  efforts.  In  the  present 
case  we  have  ourselves  fixed  the  brand  of  piracy  on  the 
very  crime  which  certain  powers  of  Europe  have  joined 
to  suppress.  Ought  we  not  to  consent  that  vessels 
bearing  our  flag,  but  falling  under  just  suspicion  of  as- 
suming it  for  the  perpetration  of  this  piracy,  should  be 
visited,  according  to  stipulated  forms,  that  their  nation- 
ality may  be  judged  ?  Have  we  any  right,  by  denying 
this  claim,  to  give  to  acknowledged,  flagrant  crime  an 
aid  and  facility  under  which  it  cannot  but  prevail  ? 
There  seems  no  reason  for  apprehension  that  in  assent- 
ing to  visitation  we  shall  expose  ourselves  to  great 
wrongs.  From  the  nature  of  the  case,  strict  and  sim- 
31* 


366  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

pie  rules  of  judgment  may  be  laid  down,  and  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  visiting  officers  may  be  made  so 
serious  as  to  give  a  moral  certainty  of  caution.  Un- 
doubtedly injuries  may  chance  to  be  inflicted,  as  is  the 
case  in  the  exercise  of  the  clearest  rights  ;  but  the 
chance  is  so  small,  whilst  the  effects  of  refusing  visi- 
tation are  so  fatal  and  so  sure,  that  our  country,  should 
it  resist  the  claim,  will  take  the  attitude  of  hostility  to 
the  human  race,  and  will  deserve  to  be  cut  off  from  the 
fellowship  of  the  Christian  world. 

It  is  customary,  I  know,  to  meet  these  remarks  by 
saying  that  the  crusade  of  England  against  this  traffic  is 
a  mere  show  of  philanthropy  ;  that  she  is  serving  only 
her  own  ends  ;  and  that  there  is  consequently  no  obli- 
gation to  cooperate  with  her.  This  language  might  be 
expected  from  the  South,  where  almost  universal  igno- 
rance prevails  in  regard  to  the  anti-slavery  efforts  of 
England  ;  but  it  does  little  honor  to  the  North,  where 
the  means  of  knowledge  are  possessed.  That  England 
is  blending  private  views  with  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade  is  a  thing  to  be  expected  ;  for  states,  like  in- 
dividuals, seldom  act  from  unmixed  motives.  But  when 
we  see  a  nation  for  fifty  years  keeping  in  sight  a  great 
object  of  humanity  ;  when  we  see  this  enterprise,  begin- 
ning with  the  peaceful  Quaker,  adopted  by  Christians 
of  other  names,  and  thus  spreading  through  and  moving 
the  whole  population  ;  when  we  see  the  reluctant  gov- 
ernment compelled  by  the  swelling  sensibility  of  the 
people  to  lend  itself  to  the  cause,  and  to  forward  it  by 
liberal  expenditure  and  vast  efforts  on  sea  and  land ;  can 
we  help  feeling  that  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  nation  is 
the  basis  and  spring  of  this  great  and  glorious  effort  ? 
On  this  subject  I  may  speak  from  knowledge.     In  Eng- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  267 

land,  many  years  ago,  I  met  the  patriarchs  of  the  anti- 
slavery  cause.  I  was  present  at  a  meeting  of  the  abo- 
lition committee,  a  body  which  has  won  an  imperishable 
name  in  history.  I  saw  men  and  women,  eminent  for 
virtue  and  genius,  who  had  abstained  from  the  products 
of  slave-labor  to  compel  the  government  to  suppress  the 
traffic  in  men.  If  ever  Christian  benevolence  wrought 
a  triumph,  it  was  in  that  struggle  ;  and  the  efforts  of  the 
nation  from  that  day  to  this  have  been  hallowed  by  the 
same  generous  feehng.  Alas  !  the  triumphs  of  humani- 
ty are  not  so  numerous  that  we  can  afford  to  part  with 
this.  History  records  but  one  example  of  a  nation 
fighting  the  battle  of  the  oppressed,  with  the  sympathy, 
earnestness,  and  sacrifices  of  a  generous  individual  ;  and 
we  will  not  give  up  our  faith  in  this.  And  now  is  our 
country  prepared  to  throw  itself  in  the  way  of  these  holy 
efforts  .''  Shall  our  flag  be  stained  with  the  infamy  of 
defending  the  slave-trade  against  the  humanity  of  other 
countries  ^  Better  that  it  should  disappear  from  the 
ocean  than  be  so  profaned. 

It  must  not  be  said  that  the  slave-trade  cannot  be  an- 
nihilated. The  prospect  grows  brighter.  One  of  its 
chief  marts,  Cuba,  is  now  closed.  The  ports  of  Brazil, 
we  trust,  will  next  be  shut  against  it  ;  and  these  meas- 
ures on  land,  aided  by  well  concerted  operations  at  sea, 
will  do  much  to  free  the  world  from  this  traffic.  It 
must  not  find  its  last  shelter  under  the  American  flag. 
We  must  not  talk  of  difficulties.  Let  the  nation's  heart 
be  opened  to  the  cry  of  humanity,  to  the  voice  of  re- 
ligion, and  difficulties  will  vanish.  In  every  good  work 
for  the  freedom  and  melioration  of  the  world  we  ought 
to  bear  our  part.  We  ought  to  be  found  in  the  front 
rank  of  the  war  against  that  hideous   traffic   which  we 


368  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

first  branded  as  piracy.  God  save  us  from  suffering  our 
flag  to  be  spread  as  a  screen  between  the  felon,  the 
pirate,  the  kidnapper,  the  murderer,  and  the  ministers 
of  justice,  of  humanity,  sent  forth  to  cut  short  his 
crimes  ! 

We  have  thus  considered  the  most  important  of  our 
difficulties  with  Mexico  and  England  which  have  been 
thought  to  threaten  war.  With  a  spirit  of  justice  and 
peace,  it  seems  impossible  that  we  should  be  involved  in 
hostilities.  The  Duties  of  the  Free  States,  and  of  all 
the  States,  are  plain.  We  should  cherish  a  spirit  of 
humanity  towards  all  countries.  We  should  resist  the 
false  notions  of  honor,  the  false  pride,  the  vindictive 
feelings,  which  are  easily  excited  by  supposed  injuries 
from  foreign  powers,  and  are  apt  to  spread  like  a  pesti- 
lence from  breast  to  breast,  till  they  burst  forth  at  length 
in  a  fierce,  uncontrollable  passion  for  war. 

I  have  now  finished  my  task.  I  have  considered  the 
Duties  of  the  Free  States  in  relation  to  slavery,  and  to 
other  subjects  of  great  and  immediate  concern.  In  this 
discussion  I  have  constantly  spoken  of  Duties  as  more 
important  than  Interests  ;  but  these  in  the  end  will  be 
found  to  agree.  The  energy  by  which  men  prosper  is 
fortified  by  nothing  so  much  as  by  the  lofty  spirit  which 
scorns  to  prosper  through  abandonment  of  duty. 

I  have  been  called  by  the  subjects  here  discussed  to 
speak  much  of  the  evils  of  the  times  and  the  dangers  of 
the  country  ;  and  in  treating  of  these  a  writer  is  almost , 
necessarily  betrayed  into  what  may  seem  a  tone  of  de- 
spondence. His  anxiety  to  save  his  country  from  crime 
or  calamity  leads  him  to  use  unconsciously  a  language 
of  alarm  which  may  excite  the  apprehension  of  inev- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  369 

table  misery.  But  I  would  not  infuse  such  fears.  I 
do  not  sympathize  with  the  desponding  tone  of  the  day. 
It  may  be  that  there  are  fearful  woes  in  store  for  this 
people  ;  but  there  are  many  promises  of  good  to  give 
spring  to  hope  and  effort  ;  and  it  is  not  wise  to  open 
our  eyes  and  ears  to  ill  omens  alone.  It  is  to  be  la- 
mented that  men  who  boast  of  courage  in  other  trials 
should  shrink  so  weakly  from  public  difficulties  and  dan- 
gers, and  should  spend  in  unmanly  reproaches  or  com- 
plaints the  strength  which  they  ought  to  give  to  their 
country's  safety.  But  this  ought  not  to  surprise  us  in 
the  present  case  ;  for  our  lot  until  of  late  has  been  sin- 
gularly prosperous,  and  great  prosperity  enfeebles  men's 
spirits,  and  prepares  them  to  despond  when  it  shall  have 
passed  aw^ay.  The  country,  we  are  told,  is  "ruined." 
What  !  the  country  ruined,  when  the  mass  of  the  popu- 
lation have  hardly  retrenched  a  luxury  .''  We  are  in- 
deed paying,  and  we  ought  to  pay,  the  penalty  of  reck- 
less extravagance,  of  wild  and  criminal  speculation,  of 
general  abandonment  to  the  passion  for  sudden  and 
enormous  gains.  But  how  are  we  ruined  .''  Is  the  kind, 
nourishing  earth  about  to  become  a  cruel  step-mother  ? 
Or  is  the  teeming  soil  of  this  magnificent  country  sinking 
beneath  our  feet  ?  Is  tlie  ocean  dried  up  ^  Are  our 
cities  and  villages,  our  schools  and  churches,  in  ruins  .'* 
Are  the  stout  muscles  which  have  conquered  sea  and 
land  palsied  ?  Are  the  earnings  of  past  years  dissi- 
pated, and  the  skill  which  gathered  them  forgotten  ?  I 
open  my  eyes  on  this  ruined  country,  and  I  see  around 
me  fields  fresh  with  verdure,  and  behold  on  all  sides  the 
intelligent  countenance,  the  sinewy  limb,  the  kindly  look, 
the 'free  and  manly  bearing,  which  indicate  any  thing 
but  a  fallen  people.     Undoubtedly  we  have  much  cause 


370  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

to  humble  ourselves  for  the  vices  v^^hich  our  recent 
prosperity  warmed  into  being,  or  rather  brought  out 
from  the  depths  of  men's  souls.  But  in  the  reprobation 
which  these  vices  awaken  have  we  no  proof  that  the 
fountain  of  moral  life  in  the  nation's  heart  is  not  ex- 
hausted ?  In  the  progress  of  temperance,  of  education, 
and  of  religious  sensibility  in  our  land  have  we  no  proof 
that  there  is  among  us  an  impulse  towards  improvement 
which  no  temporary  crime  or  calamity  can  overpower  ? 
I  shall  be  pointed  undoubtedly  to  our  political  corrup- 
tions, to  the  inefficiency  and  party  passions  which  dis- 
honor our  present  Congress,  and  to  the  infamy  brought 
on  the  country  by  breach  of  faith  and  gross  dishonesty 
in  other  legislatures.  In  sight  of  this  an  American  must 
indeed  "  blush,  and  hang  his  head."  Still  it  is  true, 
and  the  truth  should  be  told,  that,  in  consequence  of  the 
long  divorce  between  morality  and  politics,  public  men 
do  not  represent  the  character  of  the  people  ;  nor  can 
we  argue  from  profligacy  in  public  affairs  to  a  general 
want  of  private  virtue.  Besides,  we  all  know  that  it  is 
through  errors,  sins,  and  sufferings  that  the  individual 
makes  progress  ;  and  so  does  a  people.  A  nation  can- 
not learn  to  govern  itself  in  a  day.  New  institutions 
conferring  great  power  on  a  people  open  a  door  to  many 
and  great  abuses,  from  which  nothing  but  the  slow  and 
painful  discipline  of  experience  can  bring  deliverance. 
After  all,  there  is  a  growing  intelligence  in  this  commu- 
nity ;  there  is  much  domestic  virtue  ;  there  is  a  deep 
working  of  Christianity  ;  there  is  going  on  a  struggle 
of  higher  truths  with  narrow  traditions,  and  of  a  wider 
benevolence  with  social  evils  ;  there  Is  a  spirit  of  free- 
dom, a  recognition  of  the  equal  rights  of  men  ;  there  are 
profound    impulses   received  from  our  history,  from  the 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  371 

virtues  of  our  fathers,  and  especially  from  our  revolution- 
ary conflict ;  and  there  is  an  indomitable  energy,  which, 
after  rearing  an  empire  in  the  wilderness,  is  fresh  for 
new  achievements.  Such  a  people  are  not  ruined  be- 
cause Congress  leaves  the  treasury  bankrupt  for  weeks 
and  months,  and  exposes  itself  to  scorn  by  vulgar  man- 
ners and  ruffian  abuse.  In  that  very  body  how  many 
men  may  be  found  of  honor,  integrity,  and  wisdom,  who 
watch  over  their  country  with  sorrow,  but  not  despair, 
and  who  meet  an  answer  to  their  patriotism  in  the  breasts 
of  thousands  of  their  countrymen  ! 

There  is  one  Duty  of  the  Free  States  of  which  I  have 
not  spoken  ;  it  is  the  duty  of  Faith  in  the  intellectual  and 
moral  energies  of  the  country,  in  its  high  destiny,  and 
in  the  good  Providence  which  has  guided  it  through  so 
many  trials  and  perils  to  its  present  greatness.  We  in- 
deed suffer  much,  and  deserve  to  suffer  more.  Many 
dark  pages  are  to  be  written  in  our  history.  But  gen- 
erous seed  is  still  sown  in  this  nation's  mind.  Noble 
impulses  are  working  here.  We  are  called  to  be  wit- 
nesses to  the  world  of  a  freer,  more  equal,  more  humane, 
more  enlightened  social  existence  than  has  yet  been 
known.  May  God  raise  us  to  a  more  thorough  compre- 
hension of  our  work !  May  he  give  us  faith  in  the  good 
which  we  are  summoned  to  achieve  !  May  he  strengthen 
us  to  build  up  a  prosperity  not  tainted  by  slavery,  self- 
ishness, or  any  wrong  ;  but  pure,  innocent,  righteous, 
and  overflowing,  through  a  just  and  generous  intercourse, 
on  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  ! 


372  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 


NOTES 


J^oie  A. 


In  the  first  part  of  these  remarks  I  said  that  the  free- 
dom of  speech  and  of  the  press  was  fully  enjoyed  in  this 
country.  I  overlooked  the  persecutions  to  which  the  Abo- 
litionists have  been  exposed  for  expressing  their  opinions. 
That  1  should  have  forgotten  this  is  the  more  strange 
because  my  sympathy  with  these  much  injured  persons 
has  been  one  motive  to  me  for  writing  on  slavery.  The 
Free  States,  as  far  as  they  have  violated  the  rights  of  the 
Abolitionists,  have  ceased  to  be  fully  free.  They  have 
acted  as  the  tools  of  slavery,  and  have  warred  against 
freedom  in  its  noblest  form.  No  matter  what  other  lib- 
erties are  conceded,  if  liberty  of  speech  and  the  press  be 
denied  us.  We  are  robbed  of  our  most  precious  right, 
of  that  without  which  all  other  rights  are  unprotected  and 
insecure. 


Jfote  B.  page  336. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of  this  Tract  I 
have  been  sorry  to  learn  that  this  paragraph  has  been 
considered  by  some  as  showing  an  insensibility  to  the  de- 
praving influences  of  slavery.  My  purpose  was,  to  be  just 
to  the  South  ;  and  I  did  not  dream  that  in  doing  this  I 
was  throwing  a  veil  over  the  deformity  of  its  institutions. 
1  feel  deeply,  what  I  have  again  and  again  said,  that  sla- 
very does  and  must  exert  an  exceedingly  depraving  influ- 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FREE  STATES.  373 

ence.  So  wrongful  an  exercise  of  power  cannot  but  injure 
the  character.  All  who  sustain  the  relation  are  the  worse 
for  it.  But  it  is  a  plain  fact,  taught  by  all  history  and  ex- 
perience, that  under  depraving  institutions  much  virtue 
may  exist  ;  and  were  not  this  the  case,  the  condition  of 
our  race  would  be  hopeless  indeed,  for  everywhere  such 
institutions  are  found.  The  character  is  not  determined 
by  a  single  relation  or  circumstance  in  our  lot.  Most  of 
us  believe  that  Roman  Catholicism  exerts  many  influences 
hostile  to  true  Christianity,  and  yet  how  many  sincere 
Christians  have  grown  up  under  that  system  !  In  the 
midst  of  feudal  barbarism,  in  the  palaces  of  despotism, 
noble  characters  have  been  formed.  Slavery,  I  believe, 
does  incalculable  harm  to  the  slave-holders.  It  spreads 
licentiousness  of  manners  to  a  fearful  extent  ;  and  in  the 
case  of  the  good  it  obscures  their  perception  of  those  most 
important  teachings  of  Christianity  which  unfold  the  inti- 
mate relation  of  man  to  man,  and  which  enjoin  universal 
love.  Still,  it  cannot  be  denied,  that,  under  all  these  dis- 
advantages, God  finds  true  worshippers  within  the  bounds 
of  slavery,  that  many  deeds  of  Christian  love  are  per- 
formed there,  and  that  there  are  not  wanting  examples  of 
eminent  virtue.  This  is  what  I  meant  to  say.  I  am 
bound,  however,  to  add,  that,  the  more  I  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  Slave-holding  States,  the  more  I  am 
impressed  with  the  depraving  influence  of  slavery  ;  and  I 
shall  grieve,  if  my  desire  to  be  just  to  the  South,  and  my 
joy  at  witnessing  virtue  there,  should  be  construed  as  a 
negative  testimony  in  favor  of  this  corrupting  institution. 


VOL.  VI.  32 


AiS  ADDRESS 
DELIVERED    AT  LENOX, 

ON   THE 

FIRST   OF   AUGUST,    1842, 

BEING    THE 

ANNIVERSARY   OF   EMANCIPATION 

IN   THE 

BRITISH  WEST-INDIES. 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 


I  HAVE  been  encouraged  to  publish  the  following  Ad- 
dress by  the  strong  expressions  of  sympathy  with  which  it 
was  received.  I  do  not,  indeed,  suppose  that  those  who 
listened  to  it  with  interest,  and  who  have  requested  its 
publication,  accorded  with  me  in  every  opinion  which  it 
contains.  Such  entire  agreement  is  not  to  be  expected 
among  intelligent  men,  who  judge  for  themselves.  But  I 
am  sure  that  the  spirit  and  substance  of  the  Address  met 
a  hearty  response.  Several  paragraphs,  which  I  wanted 
strength  to  deliver,  are  now  published,  and  for  these  of 
course  I  am  alone  responsible. 

I  dedicate  this  Address  to  the  Men  and  Women  of 
Berkshire,  I  have  found  so  much  to  delight  me  in  the 
magnificent  scenery  of  this  region,  in  its  peaceful  and 
prosperous  villages,  and  in  the  rare  intelligence  and  vir- 
tues of  the  friends  whose  hospitality  I  have  here  enjoyed, 
that  I  desire  to  connect  this  little  work  with  this  spot.  I 
cannot  soon  forget  the  beautiful  nature  and  the  generous 
spirits  with  which  I  have  been  privileged  to  commune  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Housatonic. 

Lenox,  Mass.,  Aug.  9,  1842. 


32 


ADDRESS. 


This  day  is  the  anniversary  of  one  of  the  great  events 
of  modern  times,  the  Emancipation  of  the  Slaves  in  the 
British  West-India  Islands.  This  emancipation  began 
August  1st,  1834,  but  it  was  not  completed  until  August 
21st,  1838.  The  event,  indeed,  has  excited  little  atten- 
tion in  our  country,  partly  because  we  are  too  much 
absorbed  in  private  interests  and  local  excitements  to  be 
alive  to  the  triumphs  of  humanity  at  a  distance,  partly 
because  a  moral  contagion  has  spread  from  the  South 
through  the  North  and  deadened  our  sympathies  with  the 
oppressed.  But  West-India  emancipation,  though  re- 
ceived here  so  coldly,  is  yet  an  era  in  the  annals  of 
philanthropy.  The  greatest  events  do  not  always  draw 
most  attention  at  the  moment.  When  the  Mayflower, 
in  the  dead  of  winter,  landed  a  few  pilgrims  on  the  ice- 
bound, snow-buried  rocks  of  Plymouth,  the  occurrence 
made  no  noise.  Nobody  took  note  of  it,  and  yet  how 
much  has  that  landing  done  to  change  the  face  of  the 
civihzed  world  !  Our  fathers  came  to  establish  a  pure 
church  ;  they  little  thought  of  revolutionizing  nations. 
The  emancipation  in  the  West  Indies,  whether  viewed 
in  itself,  or  in  its  immediate  results,  or  in  the  spirit  from 
which  it  grew,  or  in  the  light  of  hope  which  it  sheds  on 
the  future,   deserves  to  be   commemorated.     In   some 


38 0  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

respects  it  stands  alone  in  human  history.  I  therefore 
invite  to  it  your  serious  attention. 

Perhaps  I  ought  to  begin  with  some  apology  for  my 
appearance  in  this  place  ;  for  I  stand  here  unasked,  un- 
invited. I  can  plead  no  earnest  solicitation  from  few  or 
many  for  the  service  I  now  render.  I  come  to  you 
simply  from  an  impulse  in  my  own  breast ;  and,  in  truth, 
had  I  been  solicited,  I  probably  should  not  have  con- 
sented to  speak.  Had  I  found  here  a  general  desire  to 
celebrate  this  day,  I  should  have  felt  that  another  speaker 
might  be  enlisted  in  the  cause,  and  I  should  have  held 
my  peace.  But  finding  that  no  other  voice  would  be 
raised,  I  was  impelled  to  lift  up  my  own,  though  too 
feeble  for  any  great  exertion.  I  trust  you  will  accept 
with  candor  what  I  have  been  obliged  to  prepare  in 
haste,  and  what  may  have  little  merit  but  that  of  pure 
intention. 

I  have  said  that  T  speak  only  from  the  impulse  of  my 
own  mind.  T  am  the  organ  of  no  association,  the  rep- 
resentative of  no  feelings  but  my  own.  But  I  wish  it  to 
be  understood  that  I  speak  from  no  sudden  impulse, 
from  no  passionate  zeal  of  a  new  convert,  but  from  de- 
liberate and  long-cherished  conviction.  In  truth,  my 
attention  was  directed  to  slavery  fifty  years  ago,  that  is, 
before  most  of  you  were  born  ;  and  the  first  impulse  came 
from  a  venerable  man,  formerly  of  great  reputation  in 
this  part  of  our  country  and  in  all  our  churches,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Hopkins,  who  removed  more  than  a  century 
ago  from  Great  Barrington  to  my  native  town,  and  there 
bore  open  and  strong  testimony  against  the  slave-trade, 
a  principal  branch  of  the  traffic  of  the  place.  T  am  re- 
minded by  the  spot  where  I  now  stand  of  another  inci- 
dent which  may  show  how  long  I  have  taken  an  interest 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIESL  381 

in  this  subject.  More  than  twenty  years  ago  I  had  an 
earnest  conversation  with  that  noble-minded  man  and 
fervent  philanthropist,  Henry  Sedgwick,  so  w^ell  and 
honorably  known  to  most  who  hear  me,  on  which  occa- 
sion we  deplored  the  insensibility  of  the  North  to  the 
evils  of  slavery,  and  inquired  by  w4iat  means  it  might  be 
removed.  The  circumstance  w^hich  particularly  gave 
my  mind  a  direction  to  this  subject  w^as  a  winter's  resi- 
dence in  a  West-Indian  island  more  than  eleven  years 
ago.  I  lived  there  on  a  plantation.  The  piazza  in 
which  I  sat  and  walked  almost  from  morning  to  night 
overlooked  the  negro  village  belonging  to  the  estate.  A 
few  steps  placed  me  in  the  midst  of  their  huts.  Here 
was  a  volume  on  slavery  opened  always  before  my  eyes, 
and  how  could  I  help  learning  some  of  its  lessons  ?  The 
gang  on  this  estate  (for  such  is  the  name  given  to  a  com- 
pany of  slaves)  was  the  best  on  the  island,  and  among 
the  best  in  the  West  Indies.  The  proprietor  had  la- 
bored to  collect  the  best  materials  for  it.  His  gang  had 
been  his  pride  and  boast.  The  fine  proportions,  the 
graceful  and  sometimes  dignified  bearing  of  these  people, 
could  hardly  be  overlooked.  Unhappily,  misfortune  had 
reduced  the  owner  to  bankruptcy.  The  estate  had  been 
mortgaged  to  a  stranger,  who  could  not  personally  su- 
perintend it  ;  and  I  found  it  under  the  care  of  a  passion- 
ate and  licentious  manager,  in  whom  the  poor  slaves 
found  a  sad  contrast  to  the  kindness  of  former  days. 
They  sometimes  came  to  the  house  where  I  resided, 
with  their  mournful  or  indignant  complaints  ;  but  were 
told  that  no  redress  could  be  found  from  the  hands  of 
their  late  master.  In  this  case  of  a  plantation  passing 
into  strange  hands  I  saw  that  the  mildest  form  of  slavery 
might  at    any  time    be    changed    into   the   worst.     On 


382  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

returning  to  this  country  I  delivered  a  discourse  on 
Slavery,  giving  the  main  views  which  I  have  since  com- 
municated ;  and  this  was  done  before  the  cry  of  Aboli- 
tionism was  heard  among  us.  I  seem,  then,  to  have  a 
peculiar  warrant  for  now  addressing  you.  I  am  giving 
you,  not  the  ebullitions  of  new,  vehement  feelings,  but 
the  results  of  long  and  patient  reflection  ;  not  the 
thoughts  of  others,  but  my  own  independent  judgments. 
I  stand  alone  ;  I  speak  in  the  name  of  no  party.  I 
have  no  connexion,  but  that  of  friendship  and  respect, 
with  the  opposers  of  slavery  in  this  country  or  abroad. 
Do  not  mix  me  up  with  other  men,  good  or  bad  ;  but 
hsten  to  me  as  a  separate  witness,  standing  on  my  own 
ground,  and  desirous  to  express  with  all  plainness  what 
seems  to  be  the  truth. 

On  this  day,  a  few  years  ago,  eight  hundred  thousand 
human  beings  were  set  free  from  slavery  ;  and  to  com- 
prehend the  greatness  of  the  deliverance,  a  few  words 
must  first  be  said  of  the  evil  from  which  they  were  res- 
cued. You  must  know  slavery,  to  know  emancipation. 
But  in  a  single  discourse  how  can  I  set  before  you  the 
wrongs  and  abominations  of  this  detestable  institution  } 
I  must  pass  over  many  of  its  features,  and  will  select 
one  which  is  at  present  vividly  impressed  on  my  mind. 
Different  minds  are  impressed  with  different  evils.  Were 
I  asked,  what  strikes  me  as  the  greatest  evil  inflicted  by 
this  system,  I  should  say,  it  is  the  outrage  offered  by 
slavery  to  human  nature.  Slavery  does  all  that  lies  in 
human  power  to  unmake  men,  to  rob  them  of  their  hu- 
manity, to  degrade  men  into  brutes  ;  and  this  it  does  by 
declaring  them  to  be  Property.  Here  is  the  master 
evil.  Declare  a  man  a  chattel,  something  which  you 
may  own   and   may  turn  to  your  use,  as  a  horse   or  a 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  383 

tool  ;  strip  him  of  all  right  over  himself,  of  all  right  to 
use  his   own  powers,  except  what  you  concede   to   him 
as  a  favor  and   deem   consistent  with  your  own  profit  ; 
and  you  cease  to  look  on  him  as  a  Man.     You  may  call 
him  such  ;  but  he  is  not  to  you  a  brother,  a  fellow-being, 
a  partaker   of  your  nature,  and  your  equal  in  the  sight 
of  God.     You  view  him,  you  treat  him,  you  speak  to 
him,  as  infinhely  beneath  you,  as   belonging  to   another 
race.     You  have  a   tone  and  a  look  towards  him  which 
you  never  use  towards  a  Man.     Your  relation  to  him 
demands  that  you  treat  him  as  an  inferior  creature.   You 
cannot,  if  you  would,  treat  him  as  a  Man.      That  he 
may   answer  your   end,   that  he  may  consent  to  be   a 
slave,  his  spirit  must  be   broken,  his  courage  crushed ; 
he  must  fear  you.     A    feehng    of  his    deep    inferiority 
must  be   burnt  into  his  soul.      The   idea  of  his   rights 
must  be  quenched  in  him  by  the  blood  of  his  lashed  and 
lacerated  body.     Here  is  the  damning  evil  of  slavery. 
It  destroys  the  spirit,  the   consciousness  of  a  man.     T 
care  little,  in  comparison,  for  his  hard  outward  lot,  his 
poverty,  his  unfurnished  house,  his  coarse  fare  ;  the  ter- 
rible thing  in  slavery  is  the  spirit  of  a  slave,  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  a  man.     He  feels  himself  owned,  a 
chattel,  a  thing  bought  and  sold,  and  held   to  sweat  for 
another's    pleasure,  at    another's  will,   under    another's 
lash,  just  as  an  ox  or  horse.      Treated  thus  as  a  brute, 
can  he  take  a  place  among  men  ?     A  slave  !     Ts  there 
a  name  so  degraded  on  earth,  a  name  which   so   sepa- 
rates a  man  from  his  kind  ?     And  to  this  condition  mil- 
lions of  our  race  are  condemned  in  this  land  of  liberty. 
In  what   is  the  slave   treated  as  a  Man  ?     The  great 
right  of  a  Man  is,  to  use,  improve,  expand  his  powers, 
for  his  own  and  others'  good.     The  slave's  powers  be- 


384  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

long  to  another,  and  are  hemmed  in,  kept  down,  not 
cherished,  or  suffered  to  unfold.  If  there  be  an  infernal 
system,  one  especially  hostile  to  humanity,  it  is  that 
which  deliberately  wars  against  the  expansion  of  men's 
faculties  ;  and  this  enters  into  the  essence  of  slavery. 
The  slave  cannot  be  kept  a  slave,  if  helped  or  allowed 
to  Improve  his  intellect  and  higher  nature.  He  must 
not  be  taught  to  read.  The  benevolent  Christian,  who 
tries,  by  giving  him  the  use  of  letters,  to  open  to  him 
the  word  of  God  and  other  good  books,  is  punished  as 
a  criminal.  The  slave  is  hedged  round  so  that  philan- 
thropy cannot  approach  him  to  awaken  in  him  the  intel- 
ligence and  feelings  of  a  man.  Thus  his  humanity  is 
trodden  under  foot. 

Again,  a  Man  has  the  right  to  form  and  enjoy  the  re- 
lations of  domestic  life.  The  tie  between  the  brute 
and  his  young  endures  but  a  few  months.  Man  was 
made  to  have  a  home,  to  have  a  wife  and  children,  to 
cleave  to  them  for  life,  to  sustain  the  domestic  relations 
in  constancy  and  purity,  and  through  these  holy  ties  to 
refine  and  exalt  his  nature.  Such  is  the  distinction  of 
a  man.  But  slavery  violates  the  sanctity  of  home.  It 
makes  the  young  woman  property,  and  gives  her  no 
protection  from  licentiousness.  It  either  disallows  mar- 
riage, or  makes  it  a  vain  show.  It  sunders  husband  and 
wife,  sells  them  into  distant  regions,  and  then  compels 
them  to  break  the  sacred  tie,  and  contract  new  alliances, 
in  order  to  stock  the  plantation  with  human  slaves. 
Scripture  and  nature  say,  "What  God  hath  joined,  let 
not  man  put  asunder  "  ;  but  slavery  scorns  God's  voice 
in  his  Word  and  in  the  human  heart.  Even  the  Chris- 
tian church  dares  not  remonstrate  against  the  wrong,  but 
sanctions  it,  and   encourages  the  poor  ignorant  slave   to 


EiWANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  385 

form  a  new,  adulterous  connexion,  that  he  may  minister 
to  his  master's  gain.  The  slave-holder  enters  the  hut 
of  his  bondsman  to  do  the  work  which  belongs  only  to 
death,  and  to  do  it  with  nothing  of  the  consolatory, 
healing  influences  which  Christianity  sheds  round  death. 
He  goes  to  tear  the  wife  from  the  husband,  the  child 
from  the  mother,  to  exile  them  from  one  another,  and 
to  convey  them  to  unknown  masters.  Is  this  to  see  a 
man  in  a  slave  ?  Is  not  this  to  place  him  beneath  hu- 
manity ? 

Again,  it  is  the  right,  privilege,  and  distinction  of  a 
Man,  not  only  to  be  connected  with  a  family,  but  with 
his  race.  He  is  made  for  free  communion  with  his 
fellow-creatures.  One  of  the  sorest  evils  of  life  is,  to 
be  cut  off  from  the  mass  of  men,  from  the  social  body  ; 
to  be  treated  by  the  multitude  of  our  fellow-creatures 
as  outcasts,  as  Parias,  as  a  fallen  race,  unworthy  to  be 
approached,  unworthy  of  the  deference  due  to  men  ;  and 
this  infinite  wrong  is  done  to  the  slave.  A  slave  !  that 
names  severs  all  his  ties  except  with  beings  as  degraded 
as  himself.  He  has  no  country,  no  pride  or  love  of  na- 
tion, no  sympathy  with  the  weal  or  woe  of  the  land 
which  gave  him  birth,  no  joy  in  its  triumphs,  no  gener- 
ous sorrow  for  its  humiliation,  no  feeling  of  that  strong 
unity  with  those  around  him  which  common  laws,  a 
common  government,  and  a  common  history  create. 
He  is  not  allowed  to  go  forth,  as  other  men  are,  and  to 
connect  himself  with  strangers,  to  form  new  alliances 
by  means  of  trade,  business,  conversation.  Society  is 
everywhere  barred  against  him.  An  iron  wall  forbids 
his  access  to  his  race.  The  miscellaneous  intercourse 
of  man  with  man,  which  strengthens  the  feeling  of  our 
common    humanity,    and    perhaps   does   more    than   all 

VOL.  VI.  33 


386  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

things  to  enlarge  the  intellect,  is  denied  him.  The 
world  is  nothing  to  him ;  he  does  not  hear  of  it.  The 
plantation  is  his  world.  To  him  the  universe  is  nar- 
rowed down  almost  wholly  to  the  hut  where  he  sleeps, 
and  the  fields  where  he  sweats  for  another's  gain.  Be- 
yond these  he  must  not  step  without  leave  ;  and  even  if 
allowed  to  wander,  who  has  a  respectful  look  or  word 
for  the  slave  ?  In  that  name  he  carries  with  him  an  at- 
mosphere of  repulsion.  It  drives  men  from  him  as  if 
he  were  a  leper.  However  gifted  by  God,  however 
thirsting  for  some  higher  use  of  his  powers,  he  must 
hope  for  no  friend  beyond  the  ignorant,  half-brutalized 
caste  with  which  bondage  has  united  him.  To  him 
there  is  no  race,  as  there  is  no  country.  In  truth,  so 
fallen  is  he  beneath  sympathy  that  multitudes  will  smile 
at  hearing  him  compassionated  for  being  bereft  of  these 
ties.  Still,  he  suffers  great  wrong.  Just  in  proportion 
as  you  sever  a  man  from  his  country  and  race  he  ceases 
to  be  a  man.  The  rudest  savage,  who  has  a  tribe  with 
which  he  sympathizes,  and  for  which  he  is  ready  to  die, 
is  far  exalted  above  the  slave.  How  much  more  exalt- 
ed is  the  poorest  freeman  in  a  civilized  land,  who  feels 
his  relation  to  a  wide  community  ;  who  lives  under 
equal  laws  to  which  the  greatest  bow  ;  whose  social  ties 
change  and  enlarge  with  the  vicissitudes  of  life  ;  whose 
mind  and  heart  are  open  to  the  quickening,  stirring  in- 
fluences of  this  various  world  !  Poor  slave  !  humani- 
ty's outcast  and  orphan  !  to  whom  no  door  is  open,  but 
that  of  the  naked  hut  of  thy  degraded  caste  !  Art 
thou  indeed  a  man  .'*  Dost  thou  belong  to  the  human 
brotherhood  ?  What  is  thy  whole  life  but  continued  in- 
sult .''  Thou  meetest  no  look  which  does  not  express 
thy  hopeless  exclusion  from  human  sympathies.      Thou 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  387 

mayest,  indeed,  be  pitied  in  sickness  and  pain;  and  so  is 
the  animal.  The  deference  due  to  a  man,  and  which 
keeps  ahve  a  man's  spirit,  is  unknown  to  thee.  The 
intercourse  which  makes  the  humblest  individual  in  oth- 
er spheres  partaker  more  or  less  in  the  improvements  of 
his  race,  thou  must  never  hope  for.  May  I  not  say, 
then,  that  nothing  extinguishes  humanity  like  slavery  ? 

In  reply  to  these  and  other  representations  of  the 
wrongs  and  evils  of  this  institution,  we  are  told  that 
slaves  are  well  fed,  well  clothed,  at  least  better  than  the 
peasantry  and  operatives  in  many  other  countries  ;  and 
this  is  gravely  adduced  as  a  vindication  of  slavery.  A 
man  capable  of  offering  it  ought,  if  any  one  ought,  to 
be  reduced  to  bondage.  A  man  who  thinks  food  and 
raiment  a  compensation  for  liberty,  who  would  counsel 
men  to  sell  themselves,  to  become  property,  to  give  up 
all  rights  and  power  over  themselves,  for  a  daily  mess 
of  pottage,  however  savory,  is  a  slave  in  heart.  He 
has  lost  the  spirit  of  a  man  ;  and  would  be  less  wronged 
than  other  men,  if  a  slave's  collar  were  welded  round 
his  neck. 

The  domestic  slave  is  well  fed,  we  are  told,  and  so 
are  the  domestic  animals.  A  nobleman's  horse  in  Eng- 
land is  belter  lodged  and  more  pampered  than  the  oper- 
atives in  Manchester.  The  grain  which  the  horse  con- 
sumes might  support  a  starving  family.  Hfiw  sleek  and 
shining  his  coat  !  How  gay  and  rich  his  caparison  ! 
But  why  is  he  thus  curried,  and  pampered,  and  bedeck- 
ed ?  To  be  bitted  and  curbed  ;  and  then  to  be  mount- 
ed by  his  master,  who  arms  himself  with  whip  and  spur 
to  put  the  animal  to  his  speed  ;  and  if  any  accident  mar 
his  strength  or  swiftness,  he  is  sold  from  his  luxuriant 
stall  to  be  flayed,  overworked,  and  hastened  out  of  life 


388  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

by  the  merciless  drayman.  Suppose  the  nobleman 
should  say  to  the  half-starved,  ragged  operative  of 
Manchester,  "  I  will  give  up  my  horse,  and  feed  and 
clothe  you  with  like  sumptuousness,  on  condition  that  I 
may  mount  you  daily  with  lash  and  spurs,  and  sell  you 
when  I  can  make  a  profitable  bargain."  Would  you 
have  the  operative,  for  the  sake  of  good  fare  and  clothes, 
take  the  lot  of  the  brute  ?  or,  in  other  words,  become  a 
slave  ?  What  reply  would  the  heart  of  an  Old-England 
or  New-England  laborer  make  to  such  a  proposal  ?  And 
yet,  if  there  be  any  soundness  in  the  argument  drawn 
from  the  slave's  comforts,  he  ought  to  accept  it  thank- 
fully and  greedily. 

Such  arguments  for  slavery  are  insults.  The  man 
capable  of  using  them  ought  to  be  rebuked  as  mean  in 
spirit,  hard  of  heart,  and  wanting  all  true  sympathy  with 
his  race.  I  might  reply,  if  I  thought  fit,  to  this  ac- 
count of  the  slave's  blessings,  that  there  is  nothing  very 
enviable  in  his  food  and  wardrobe,  that  his  comforts 
make  no  approach  to  those  of  the  nobleman's  horse, 
and  that  a  laborer  of  New-England  would  prefer  the 
fare  of  many  an  almshouse  at  home.  But  I  cannot 
stoop  to  such  reasoning.  Be  the  comforts  of  the  slave 
what  they  may,  they  are  no  compensation  for  the  degra- 
dation, insolence,  indignities,  ignorance,  servility,  scars, 
and  violatioj^  of  domestic  rights  to  which  he  is  exposed. 

I  have  spoken  of  what  seems  to  me  the  grand  evil  of 
slavery, — the  outrage  it  oflers  to  human  nature.  It 
would  be  easy  to  enlarge  on  other  fatal  tendencies  and 
effects  of  this  institution.  But  I  forbear,  not  only  for 
want  of  time,  but  because  I  feel  no  need  of  a  minute 
exposition  of  its  wrongs  and  miseries  to  make  it  odious. 
I  cannot  endure  to  go   through  a  labored   proof  of  its 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  389 

iniquitous  and  injurious  nature.  No  man  wants  such 
proof.  He  carries  the  evidence  in  his  own  heart.  I  need 
nothing  but  the  most  general  view  of  slavery,  to  move 
my  indignation  towards  it.  I  am  more  and  more  accus- 
tomed to  throw  out  of  sight  its  particular  evils,  its  details 
of  wrong  and  suffering,  and  to  see  in  it  simply  an  institu- 
tion which  deprives  men  of  freedom  ;  and  when  I  thus 
view  it,  I  am  taught  immediately,  by  an  unerring  instinct, 
that  slavery  is  an  intolerable  wrong.  Nature  cries  aloud 
for  freedom  as  our  proper  good,  our  birthright  and  our 
end,  and  resents  nothing  so  much  as  its  loss.  It  is  true 
that  we  are  placed  at  first  in  subjection  to  others'  wills, 
and  spend  childhood  and  youth  under  restraint.  But  we 
are  governed  at  first  that  we  may  learn  to  govern  our- 
selves ;  we  begin  with  leading-strings  that  we  may  learn  to 
go  alone.  The  discipline  of  the  parent  is  designed  to  train 
up  his  children  to  act  for  themselves,  and  from  a  princi- 
ple of  duty  in  their  own  breasts.  The  child  is  not  sub- 
jected to  his  father  to  be  a  slave,  but  to  grow  up  to  the 
energy,  responsibility,  relations,  and  authority  of  a  man. 
Freedom,  courage,  moral  force,  efficiency,  indepen- 
dence, the  large,  generous  action  of  the  soul,  these  are 
the  blessings  in  store  for  us,  the  grand  ends  to  which  the 
restraints  of  education,  of  family,  of  school,  and  college 
are  directed.  Nature  knows  no  such  thing  as  a  perpetual 
yoke.  Nature  bends  no  head  to  the  dust,  to  look  for 
ever  downward.  Nature  makes  no  man  a  chattel.  Na- 
ture has  implanted  in  all  souls  the  thirst,  the  passion  for 
liberty.  Nature  stirs  the  heart  of  the  child,  and  prompts 
it  to  throw  out  its  litde  limbs  in  restlessness  and  joy,  and 
to  struggle  against  restraint.  Nature  impels  the  youth  to 
leap,  to  run,  to  put  forth  all  his  powers,  to  look  with 
impatience  on  prescribed  bounds,  to  climb  the  steep,  to 
33* 


390  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNHTERSAIIY  OF 

dive  into  the  ocean,  to  court  danger,  to  spread  himself 
through  the  new  world  which  he  was  born  to  inherit. 
Nature's  life,  nature's  impulse,  nature's  joy  is  Freedom. 
A  greater  violence  to  nature  cannot  be  conceived  than 
to  rob  man  of  liberty. 

What  is  the  end  and  essence  of  life  }  It  is,  to  ex- 
pand all  our  faculties  and  affections.  It  is,  to  grow,  to 
gain  by  exercise  new  energy,  new  intellect,  new  love. 
It  is,  to  hope,  to  strive,  to  bring  out  what  is  within  us, 
to  press  towards  what  is  above  us.  In  other  words,  it 
is,  to  be  Free.  Slavery  is  thus  at  war  with  the  true 
life  of  human  nature..^  Undoubtedly  there  is  a  power  in 
the  soul  which  the  loss  of  freedom  cannot  always  subdue. 
There  have  been  men  doomed  to  perpetual  bondage  who 
have  still  thought  and  felt  nobly,  looked  up  to  God  with 
trust,  and  learned  by  experience  that  even  bondage,  like 
all  other  evils,  may  be  made  the  occasion  of  high  virtue. 
But  these  are  exceptions.  In  the  main,  our  nature  is 
too  weak  to  grow  under  the  weight  of  chains. 

To  illustrate  the  supreme  importance  of  Freedom,  I 
would  offer  a  remark  which  may  sound  like  a  paradox, 
but  will  be  found  to  be  true.  It  is  this,  that  even  Des- 
potism is  endurable  only  because  it  bestows  a  degree  of 
freedom.  Despotism,  bad  as  it  is,  supplants  a  greater 
evil,  and  that  is  anarchy  ;  and  anarchy  is  worse,  chiefly 
because  it  is  more  enslaving.  In  anarchy  all  restraint  is 
plucked  from  the  strong,  who  make  a  prey  of  the  weak ; 
subduing  them  by  terror,  seizing  on  their  property,  and 
treading  every  right  under  foot.  When  the  laws  are 
prostrated,  arbitrary,  passionate,  lawless  will,  the  will 
of  the  strongest,  exasperated  by  opposition,  must  pre- 
vail ;  and  under  this  the  rights  of  person  as  well  as  prop- 
erty are  cast  down,  and  a  palsying  fear  imposes  on  men's 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  391 

spirits  a  heavier  chain  than  was  ever  forged  by  an  organ- 
ized despotism.  In  the  whole  history  of  tyranny  in 
France,  hberty  was  never  so  crushed  as  in  the  Reign  of 
Terror  in  the  Revolution,  when  mobs  and  lawless  com- 
binations usurped  the  power  of  the  state.  A  despot,  to 
be  safe,  must  establish  a  degree  of  order,  and  this  im- 
plies laws,  tribunals,  and  some  administration  of  justice, 
however  rude  ;  and  still  more,  he  has  an  interest  in  pro- 
tecting industry  and  property  to  some  degree,  in  order 
that  he  may  extort  the  more  from  his  people's  earnings 
under  the  name  of  revenue.  Thus  despotism  is  an 
advance  towards  liberty  ;  and  in  this  its  strength  very 
much  lies  ;  for  the  people  have  a  secret  consciousness 
that  their  rights  suffer  less  under  one  than  under  many 
tyrants,  under  an  organized  absolutism  than  under  wild, 
lawless,  passionate  force  ;  and  on  this  conviction,  as 
truly  as  on  armies,  rests  the  despot's  throne.  Thus 
freedom  and  rights  are  ever  cherished  goods  of  human 
nature.  Man  keeps  them  in  sight  even  when  most 
crushed  ;  and  just  in  proportion  as  civilization  and  intel- 
ligence advance  he  secures  them  more  and  more.  This 
is  infallibly  true  notwithstanding  opposite  appearances. 
The  old  forms  of  despotism  may,  indeed,  continue  in  a 
progressive  civilization,  but  their  force  dechnes  ;  and 
public  opinion,  the  will  of  the  community,  silently  estab- 
lishes a  sway  over  what  seems  and  is  denon}inated  abso- 
lute power.  We  have  a  striking  example  of  this  truth 
in  Prussia,  where  the  king  seems  unchecked,  but  where 
a  code  of  wise  and  equal  laws  insures  to  every  man  his 
rights  to  a  degree  experienced  in  few  other  countries, 
and  where  the  administration  of  justice  cannot  safely  be 
obstructed  by  the  will  of  the  sovereign.  Thus  freedom, 
man's  dearest  birthright,  is  the  good  towards  which  civil 


392  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

institutions  tend.  It  is  at  once  the  sign  and  the  means, 
the  cause  and  the  effect  of  human  progress.  It  exists  in 
a  measure  under  tyrannical  governments,  and  gives  them 
their  strength.  Nowhere  is  it  wholly  broken  down  but 
under  domestic  slavery.  Under  this,  man  is  made 
Property.  Here  lies  the  damning  taint,  the  accursed, 
blighting  power,  the  infinite  evil  of  bondage. 

On  this  day,  four  years  ago,  eight  hundred  thousand 
human  beings  were  set  free  from  the  terrible  evil  of 
which  I  have  given  a  faint  sketch.  Eight  hundred  thou- 
sand of  our  brethren,  who  had  lived  in  darkness  and  the 
shadow  of  death,  were  visited  with  the  light  of  liberty. 
Instead  of  the  tones  of  absolute,  debasing  command,  a 
new  voice  broke  on  their  ears,  calling  them  to  come 
forth  to  be  free.  They  were  undoubtedly  too  rude,  too 
ignorant,  to  comprehend  the  greatness  of  the  blessing 
conferred  on  them  this  day.  Freedom  to  them  undoubt- 
edly seemed  much  what  it  is  not.  Children  in  intellect, 
they  seized  on  it  as  a  child  on  a  holyday.  But  slavery 
had  not  wholly  stifled  in  them  the  instincts,  feelings, 
judgments  of  men.  They  felt  on  this  day  that  the  whip 
of  the  brutal  overseer  was  broken  ;  and  was  that  no 
cause  for  exulting  joy  ?  They  felt  that  wife  and  child 
could  no  longer  be  insulted  or  scourged  in  their  sight, 
and  they  be  denied  the  privilege  of  lifting  up  a  voice 
in  their  behalf.  Was  that  no  boon  ?  They  felt  that 
henceforth  they  were  to  work  from  their  own  wills, 
for  their  own  good,  that  they  might  earn  perhaps  a 
hut,  which  they  might  call  their  own,  and  which  the 
foot  of  a  master  could  not  profane,  nor  a  master's  in- 
terest lay  waste.  Can  you  not  conceive  how  they 
stretched  out  their  limbs,  and  looked  on  them  with  a 
new  joy,  saying,  "  These  are  our  own  "  ?     Can  you  not 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  393 

conceive  how  they  leaped  with  a  new  animation,  exult- 
ing to  put  forth  powers  which  were  from  that  day  to  be 
"their  own"  ?  Can  you  not  conceive  how  they  looked 
round  them  on  the  fields  and  hills,  and  said  to  them- 
selves, "We  can  go  now  where  we  will"?  and  how 
they  continued  to  live  in  their  huts  with  new  content, 
because  they  could  leave  them  if  they  would  ?  Can  you 
not  conceive  how  dim  ideas  of  a  better  lot  dawned  on 
their  long-dormant  minds  ;  how  the  future,  once  a  blank, 
began  to  brighten  before  them  ;  how  hope  began  to 
spread  her  unused  pinions  ;  how  the  faculties  and  feel- 
ings of  men  came  to  a  new  birth  within  them  ?  The 
father  and  mother  took  their  child  to  their  arras  and  said, 
"  Nobody  can  sell  you  from  us  now."  Was  not  that 
enough  to  give  them  a  new  life  ?  The  husband  and  wife 
began  to  feel  that  there  was  an  inviolable  sanctity  in 
marriage  ;  and  a  glimpse,  however  faint,  of  a  moral, 
spiritual  bond  began  to  take  place  of  the  loose  sensual 
tie  which  had  held  them  together.  Still  more,  and  what 
deserves  special  note,  the  colored  man  raised  his  eyes 
on  this  day  to  the  white  man,  and  sav/  the  infinite  chasm 
between  himself  and  the  white  race  growing  narrower  ; 
saw  and  felt  that  he,  too,  was  a  Man  ;  that  he,  too,  had 
rights  ;  that  he  belonged  to  the  common  Father,  not  to 
a  frail,  selfish  creature  ;  that,  under  God,  he  was  his 
own  master.  A  rude  feeling  of  dignity,  in  strange  con- 
trast with  the  abjectness  of  the  slave,  gave  new  courage 
to  that  look,  gave  a  firmer  tone,  a  manlier  tread.  This, 
had  I  been  there,  would  have  interested  me  especially. 
The  tumult  of  joyful  feeling  bursting  forth  in  the  broken 
language  which  slavery  had  taught  I  should  have  sympa- 
thized with.  But  the  sight  of  the  slave  rising  into  a  man, 
looking  on  the  white  race  with  a  steady  eye,  with  the 


394  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVEESARY  OF 

secret  consciousness  of  a  common  nature,  and  beginning 
to  comprehend  his  heaven-descended,  inalienable  rights, 
would  have  been  the  crowning  joy. 

It  was  natural  to  expect  that  the  slaves,  on  the  first 
of  August,  receiving  the  vast,  incomprehensible  gift  of 
freedom,  would  have  rushed  into  excess.  It  would 
not  have  surprised  me,  had  I  heard  of  intemperance, 
tumult,  violence.  Liberty,  that  mighty  boon,  for  which 
nations  have  shed  rivers  of  their  best  blood,  for  which 
they  have  toiled  and  suffered  for  years,  perhaps  for  ages, 
v.as  given  to  these  poor,  ignorant  creatures  in  a  day,  and 
given  to  them  after  lives  of  cruel  bondage,  immeasura- 
bly more  cruel  than  any  political  oppression.  Would  it 
have  been  wonderful,  if  they  had  been  intoxicated  by  the 
sudden,  vast  transition  ^  if  they  had  put  to  shame  the 
authors  of  their  freedom  by  an  immediate  abuse  of  it  ? 
Happily,  the  poor  negroes  had  enjoyed  one  privilege  in 
their  bondage.  They  had  learned  something  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  very  little  indeed,  yet  enough  to  teach  them  that 
liberty  was  the  gift  of  God.  That  mighty  power,  re- 
ligion, had  begun  a  work  within  them.  The  African 
nature  seems  singularly  susceptible  of  this  principle. 
Benevolent  missionaries,  whom  the  anti-slavery  spirit  of 
England  had  sent  into  the  colonies,  had  for  some  time 
been  working  on  the  degraded  minds  of  the  bondmen, 
and  not  wholly  in  vain.  The  slaves,  whilst  denied  the 
rank  of  men  by  their  race,  had  caught  the  idea  of  their 
relation  to  the  Infinite  Father.  That  great  doctrine  of 
the  Universal,  Impartial  Love  of  God,  embracing  the 
most  obscure,  dishonored,  oppressed,  had  dawned  on 
them.  Their  new  freedom  thus  became  associated  with 
religion,  the  mightiest  principle  on  earth,  and  by  this  it 
was  not  merely  saved  from  excess,  but  made  the  spring 
of  immediate  elevation. 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  "WT:OT-INDIES.  395 

Little  did  I  imagine  that  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  was  to  be  invested  with  holiness  and  moral  sub- 
limity. Little  did  I  expect  that  my  heart  was  to  be 
touched  by  it  as  by  few  events  in  history.  But  the 
emotions  with  which  I  first  read  the  narrative  of  the  great 
gift  of  liberty  in  Antigua  are  still  fresh  in  my  mind.  Let 
me  read  to  you  the  story  ;  none,  I  think,  can  hear  it 
unmoved.  It  is  the  testimony  of  trustworthy  men,  who 
visited  the  West  Indies  to  observe  the  effects  of  eman- 
cipation. 

"To  convey  to  the  reader  some  account  of  the  way  in 
which  the  great  crisis  passed,  we  here  give  the  substance 
of  several  accounts  which  were  related  to  us  in  different 
parts  of  the  island  by  those  who  witnessed  them, 

"  The  Wesley ans  kept  '  watch-night  '  in  all  their  chap- 
els on  the  night  of  the  3 1st  July.  One  of  the  Wesley  an 
missionaries  gave  us  an  account  of  the  watch-meeting  at 
the  chapel  in  St.  John's.  The  spacious  house  was  filled 
with  the  candidates  for  liberty.  All  was  animation  and 
eagerness.  A  mighty  chorus  of  voices  swelled  the  song 
of  expectation  and  joy  ;  and  as  they  united  in  prayer,  the 
voice  of  the  leader  was  drowned  in  the  universal  acclama- 
tion of  thanksgiving,  and  praise,  and  blessing,  and  honor, 
and  glory  to  God,  who  had  come  down  for  their  deliver- 
ance. In  such  exercises  the  evening  was  spent  until  the 
hour  of  twelve  approached.  The  missionary  then  pro- 
posed, that,  when  the  clock  on  the  cathedral  should  begin 
to  strike,  the  whole  congregation  should  fall  upon  their 
knees,  and  receive  the  boon  of  freedom  in  silence.  Ac- 
cordingly, as  the  loud  bell  tolled  its  first  note,  the  im- 
mense assembly  fell  prostrate  on  their  knees.  All  was 
silence,  save  the  quivering,  half-stifled  breath  of  the  strug- 
gling spirit.  The  slow  notes  of  the  clock  fell  upon  the 
multitude  ;  peal  on  peal,  peal  on  peal,  rolled  over  the  pros- 
trate throng,  in  tones  of  angels'  voices,  thrilling  among 
the  desolate  chords  and  weary  heart-strings.  Scarce  had 
the  clock  sounded  its  last  note,  when  the  lightning  flashed 
vividly  around,  and  a  loud  peal  of  thunder  roared  along 
the  sky,  —  God's  pillar  of  fire,  and  trump  of  jubilee  !  A 
moment  of  profoundest  silence  passed, — then  came  the 


396  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

burst, — they  broke  forth  in  prayer;  they  shouted,  they 
sung,  'Glory!'  'Alleluia!'  they  clapped  their  hands, 
leaped  up,  fell  down,  clasped  each  other  in  their  free 
arms,  cried,  laughed,  and  went  to  and  fro,  tossing  upward 
their  unfettered  hands  ;  but  high  above  the  whole  there 
was  a  mighty  sound  which  ever  and  anon' swelled  up  ;  it 
was  the  utterings,  in  broken  Negro  dialect,  of  gratitude  to 
God. 

"  After  this  gush  of  excitement  had  spent  itself,  and  the 
congregation  became  calm,  the  religious  exercises  were 
resumed,  and  the  remainder  of  the  night  was  occupied  in 
singing  and  prayer,  in  reading  the  Bible,  and  in  addresses 
from  the  missionaries,  explaining  the  nature  of  the  free- 
dom just  received,  and  exhorting  the  free  people  to  be  in- 
dustrious, steady,  obedient  to  the  laws,  and  to  show  them- 
selves in  all  things  worthy  of  the  high  boon  which  God  had 
conferred  upon  them. 

"The  first  of  August  came  on  Friday,  and  a  release 
was  proclaimed  from  all  work  until  the  next  Monday. 
The  day  was  chiefly  spent,  by  the  great  mass  of  negroes, 
in  the  churches  and  chapels.  Thither  they  flocked  in 
clouds,  and  as  doves  to  their  windows.  The  clergy  and 
missionaries  throughout  the  island  were  actively  engaged, 
seizing  the  opportunity  in  order  to  enlighten  the  people 
on  all  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  their  new  situa- 
tion, and,  above  all,  urgincr  them  to  the  attainment  of  that 
higher  liberty  with  which  Christ  maketh  his  children  free. 
In  every  quarter  we  were  assured  that  the  day  was  like  a 
Sabbath.  Work  had  ceased  ;  the  hum  of  business  was 
still  ;  and  noise  and  tumult  were  unheard  in  the  streets. 
Tranquillity  pervaded  the  towns  and  country.  A  Sabbath 
indeed  !  when  the  wicked  ceased  from  troubling,  and  the 
weary  were  at  rest,  and  the  slave  was  freed  from  the  mas- 
ter !  The  planters  informed  us  that  they  went  to  the 
chapels  where  their  own  people  were  assembled,  greeted 
them,  shook  hands  with  them,  and  exchanged  most  hearty 
good  wishes."* 

Such  is  the  power  of  true  religion  on  the  rudest  minds. 
Such  the  deep  fountain  of  feeling  in  the  African  soul. 

'  See  "  Emancipation  in  the  West  Indies,"  by  Thome  and  Kimball. 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  397 

Such  the  race  of  men  whom  we  are  trampling  in  the 
dust.  How  few  of  our  assembhes,  with  all  our  intelli- 
gence and  refinement,  offer  to  God  this  overflowing 
gratitude,  this  profound,  tender,  rapturous  homage  ! 
True,  the  slaves  poured  out  their  joy  with  a  child-like 
violence  ;  but  we  see  a  childhood  full  of  promise.  And 
why  do  we  place  this  race  beneath  us  ?  Because  nature 
has  burnt  on  them  a  darker  hue.  (But  does  the  essence 
of  humanity  live  in  color  ?  Is  the  black  man  less  a 
man  than  the  white  ?  Has  he  not  human  powers,  hu- 
man rights  ?  Does  his  color  reach  to  his  soul  ?  Is 
reason  in  him  a  whit  blacker  than  in  us  ?  Have  his 
conscience  and  affections  been  dipped  in  an  inky  flood  ? 
To  the  eye  of  God  are  his  pure  thoughts  and  kind  feel- 
ings less  fair  than  our  own  ?  We  are  apt  to  think  this 
prejudice  of  color  founded  in  nature.  But  in  the  most 
enhghtened  countries  in  Europe  the  man  of  African  de- 
scent is  received  into  the  society  of  the  great  and  good 
as  an  equal  and  friend.  It  is  here  only  that  this  preju- 
dice reigns  ;  and  to  this  prejudice,  strengthened  by  our 
subjection  to  Southern  influence,  must  be  ascribed  our 
indifference  to  the  progress  of  liberty  in  the  West  In- 
dies. Ought  not  the  emancipation  of  nearly  a  million 
of  human  beings,  so  capable  of  progress  as  the  African 
race,  to  have  sent  a  thrill  of  joy  through  a  nation  of 
freemen  ?  But  this  great  event  was  received  in  our 
country  with  indifference.  Humanity,  justice,  Christian 
sympathy,  the  love  of  liberty,  found  but  few  voices  here. 
Nearly  a  million  of  men,  at  no  great  distance  from  our 
land,  passed  from  the  most  degrading  bondage  into  the 
ranks  of  freedom  with  hardly  a  welcome  from  these 
shores. 

Perhaps  you  will  say,  that  we  are  bound  to  wait  for 

VOL.  VI.  34 


398  ADDRESS  OxN  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

the  fruits  of  emancipation,  before  we  celebrate  it  as  a 
great  event  in  history.  I  think  not  so.  We  ouglit  to 
rejoice  immediately,  without  delay,  whenever  an  act  of 
justice  is  done,  especially  a  grand  public  act,  subverting 
the  oppression  of  ages.  We  ought  to  triumph,  when 
the  right  prospers,  without  waiting  for  consequences. 
We  ought  not  to  doubt  about  consequences,  when  men, 
in  obedience  to  conscience,  and  in  the  exercise  of  their 
best  wisdom,  redress  a  mighty  wrong.  If  God  reigns, 
then  the  subversion  of  a  vast  crime,  then  the  breaking 
of  an  unrighteous  yoke,  must  in  its  final  results  be  good. 
Undoubtedly  an  old  abuse  which  has  sent  its  roots 
through  society  cannot  be  removed  without  inconven- 
ience or  suffering.  Indeed,  no  great  social  change, 
however  beneficial,  can  occur  without  partial,  temporary 
pain.  But  must  abuses  be  sheltered  without  end,  and 
human  progress  given  up  in  despair,  because  some  who 
have  fattened  on  wrongs  will  cease  to  prosper  at  the 
expense  of  their  brethren  }  Undoubtedly  slavery  can- 
not be  broken  up  without  deranging  in  a  measure  tlie  old 
social  order.  Must,  therefore,  slavery  be  perpetual  ? 
Has  the  Creator  laid  on  any  portion  of  his  children  the 
necessity  of  everlasting  bondage  ?  Must  wrong  know 
no  end  ?  Has  oppression  a  charter  from  God,  which 
is  never  to  grow  old  ^  What  a  libel  on  God,  as  well 
as  on  man,  is  the  supposition,  that  society  cannot  sub- 
sist without  perpetuatmg  the  degradation  of  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  race  !  Is  this  indeed  the  law  of  the  creation, 
that  multitudes  must  be  oppressed  }  that  states  can  sub- 
sist and  prosper  only  through  crime  .''  Then  there  is  no 
God.  Then  an  Evil  Spirit  reigns  over  the  universe. 
It  is  an  impious  error,  to  believe  that  injustice  is  a  ne- 
cessity under  the  government  of  the  Most  High.     It  is 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  399 

disloyalty  to  principle,  treachery  to  virtue,  to  suppose  that 
a  righteous,  generous  work,  conceived  in  a  sense  of  duty, 
and  carried  on  with  deliberate  forethought,  can  issue  in 
misery,  in  ruin.  To  this  want  of  faith  in  rectitude  society 
owes  its  woes,  owes  the  hcensed  frauds  and  crimes  of 
statesmen,  the  licensed  frauds  of  trade,  the  continuance 
of  slavery.  Once  let  men  put  faith  in  rectitude,  let 
them  feel  that  justice  is  strength,  that  disinterestedness 
is  a  sun  and  a  shield,  that  selfishness  and  crime  are 
weak  and  miserable,  and  the  face  of  the  earth  would  be 
changed,  the  groans  of  ages  would  cease.  We  ought 
to  shout  for  joy,  not  shrink  like  cowards,  when  justice 
and  humanity  triumph  over  established  wrongs. 

The  emancipation  of  the  British  Islands  ought,  then, 
to  have  called  forth  acclamation  at  its  birth.  Much 
more  should  we  rejoice  in  it  now,  when  time  has  taught 
us  the  folly  of  the  fears  and  the  suspicions  which  it 
awakened,  and  taught  us  the  safety  of  doing  right. 
Emancipation  has  worked  well.  By  this  I  do  not  mean 
that  it  has  worked  miracles.  I  have  no  glowing  pictures 
to  exhibit  to  you  of  the  West-Indian  Islands.  An  Act 
of  the  British  parliament  declaring  them  free  has  not 
changed  them  into  a  paradise.  A  few  strokes  of  the 
pen  cannot  reverse  the  laws  of  nature,  or  conquer  the 
almost  omnipotent  power  of  early  and  long  continued 
habit.  Even  in  this  country,  where  we  breathe  the  air 
of  freedom  from  our  birth,  and  where  we  have  grown 
up  amidst  churches  and  school-houses  and  under  wise 
and  equal  laws,  even  here  we  find  no  paradise.  Here 
are  crime  and  poverty  and  woe  ;  and  can  you  expect  a 
poor  ignorant  race,  born  to  bondage,  scarred  with  the 
lash,  uneducated,  and  unused  to  all  the  motives  which 
stimulate  industry,  can  you  expect  these  to  unlearn  in  a 


400  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNTVERSARY  OF 

day  the  lessons  of  years,  and  to  furnish  all  at  once 
themes  for  eloquent  description  ?  Were  you  to  visit 
those  islands,  you  would  find  a  slovenly  agriculture, 
much  ignorance,  and  more  sloth  than  you  see  at  home  ; 
and  yet  emancipation  works  well,  far  better  than  could 
have  been  anticipated.  To  me  it  could  hardly  have 
worked  otherwise  than  well.  It  banished  slavery,  that 
wrong  and  curse  not  to  be  borne.  It  gave  freedom, 
the  dear  birthright  of  humanity  ;  and  had  it  done  noth- 
ing more,  I  should  have  found  in  it  cause  for  joy. 
Freedom,  simple  freedom,  is  "  in  my  estimation  just, 
far  prized  above  all  price."  I  do  not  stop  to  ask  if  the 
emancipated  are  better  fed  and  clothed  than  formerly. 
They  are  Free  ;  and  that  one  word  contains  a  world  of 
good,  unknown  to  the  most  pampered  slave. 

But  emancipation  has  brought  more  than  naked  lib- 
erty. The  emancipated  are  making  progress  in  intelli- 
gence, comforts,  purity  ;  and  progress  is  the  great  good 
of  life.  No  matter  where  men  are  at  any  given  moment ; 
the  great  question  about  them  is.  Are  they  going  for- 
ward ?  do  they  improve  ?  Slavery  was  immovable, 
hopeless  degradation.  It  is  the  glory  of  liberty  to  favor 
progress,  and  this  great  blessing  emancipation  has  be- 
stowed. We  were  told,  indeed,  that  emancipation  was 
to  turn  the  green  islands  of  the  West  Indies  into  deserts  ; 
but  they  still  rise  from  the  tropical  sea  as  blooming  and 
verdant  as  before.  We  were  told  that  the  slaves,  if 
set  free,  would  break  out  in  universal  massacre  ;  but 
since  that  event  not  a  report  has  reached  us  of  murder 
perpetrated  by  a  colored  man  on  the  white  population. 
We  were  told  that  crimes  would  multiply  ;  but  they 
are  diminished  in  every  emancipated  island,  and  very 
greatly  in  most.     We  were  told    that    the    freed  slave 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  401 

would  abandon  himself  to  idleness  ;  and  this  I  did  an- 
ticipate, to  a  considerable  degree,  as  the  first  result. 
Men  on  whom  industry  had  been  forced  by  the  lash,  and 
who  had  been  taught  to  regard  sloth  as  their  master's 
chief  good,  were  strongly  tempted  to  surrender  the  first 
days  of  freedom  to  indolent  indulgence.  But  in  this 
respect  the  evil  has  been  so  small  as  to  fill  a  reflecting 
man  with  admiration.  In  truth,  no  race  but  the  African 
could  have  made  the  great  transition  with  so  little  harm 
to  themselves  and  others.  In  general,  they  resumed 
their  work  after  a  short  burst  of  joy.  The  desire  of 
property,  of  bettering  their  lot,  at  once  sprang  up  within 
them  in  sufficient  strength  to  counterbalance  the  love  of 
ease.  Some  of  them  have  become  proprietors  of  the 
soil.  New  villages  have  grown  up  under  their  hands  ; 
their  huts  are  more  comfortable  ;  their  dress  more  de- 
cent, sometimes  too  expensive.  When  I  tell  you  that 
the  price  of  real  estate  in  these  islands  has  risen,  and 
that  the  imports  from  the  mother  country,  especially 
those  for  the  laborer's  use,  have  increased,  you  will 
judge  whether  the  hberated  slaves  are  living  as  drones. 
Undoubtedly  the  planter  has  sometimes  wanted  work- 
men, and  the  staple  product  of  the  islands,  sugar,  has 
decreased.  But  this  can  be  explained  without  much 
reproach  to  the  emancipated.  The  laborer,  who  in 
slavery  was  over-tasked  in  the  cane-field  and  sugar-mill, 
is  anxious  to  buy  or  hire  land  sufficient  for  his  support, 
and  to  work  for  himself,  instead  of  hiring  himself  to 
another.  A  planter  from  British  Guiana  informed  me, 
a  few  weeks  ago,  that  a  company  of  colored  men  had 
paid  down  seventy  thousand  dollars  for  a  tract  of  land 
in  the  most  valuable  part  of  that  colony.  It  is  not 
sloth,  so  much  as  a  spirit  of  manly  independence,  which 
34* 


402  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

has  withdrawn  the  laborer  from  the  plantation  ;  and  this 
evil,  if  so  it  must  be  called,  has  been  increased  by  his 
unwillingness  to  subject  his  wife  and  daughter  to  the 
toils  of  the  field  which  they  used  to  bear  in  the  days 
of  Slavery.  Undoubtedly  the  colored  population  might 
do  more,  but  they  do  enough  to  earn  a  better  lot  than 
they  ever  enjoyed,  and  the  work  of  improvement  goes 
on  among  them. 

I  pass  to  a  still  brighter  view.  The  spirit  of  educa- 
tion has  sprung  up  among  the  people  to  an  extent 
worthy  of  admiration.  We  despise  them  ;  and  yet 
there  is  reason  to  beheve  that  a  more  general  desire 
to  educate  their  children  is  to  be  found  among  them 
than  exists  among  large  portions  of  the  white  population 
in  the  Slave  States  of  the  South.  They  have  learned 
that  their  ignorance  is  the  great  barrier  between  them 
and  the  white  men,  and  this  they  are  in  earnest  to  pros- 
trate. It  has  been  stated,  that,  in  one  island,  not  a 
child  above  ten  years  of  age  was  unable  to  read.  Hu- 
man history  probably  furnishes  no  parallel  of  an  equal 
progress  in  a  half-civilized  community. 

To  this  must  be  added  their  interest  in  religious  in- 
stitutions. Their  expenditures  for  the  support  of  these 
are  such  as  should  put  to  shame  the  backwardness 
of  multitudes  in  countries  calling  theniselves  civihzed. 
They  do  more  than  we,  in  proportion  to  their  means. 
Some  of  them  have  even  subscribed  funds  for  the  dif- 
fusion of  the  gospel  in  Africa,  an  instance  of  their  zeal, 
rather  than  their  wisdom  ;  for  they  undoubtedly  need  all 
they  can  spare  for  their  own  instruction.  Their  con- 
ceptions of  religion  are,  of  course,  narrow  and  rude,  but 
their  hearts  have  been  touched  by  its  simpler  truths  ; 
and  love  is  the  key  to  higher  knowledge.     To  this  let 


ElMANCIPATION   IN  THE  CIUTISH   WEST-INDIES.  403 

me  add,  that  marriage  is  acquiring  sanctity  in  their  eyes, 
that  domestic  life  is  putting  on  a  new  refinement,  and 
you  will  see  that  this  people  have  all  the  elements  of 
social  progress.  Property,  marriage,  and  religion  have 
been  called  the  pillars  of  society,  and  of  these  the  lib- 
erated slave  has  learned  the  value. 

The  result  of  all  these  various  improvements  is  what 
every  wise  friend  of  humanity  must  rejoice  in.  Their 
social  position  is  changed.  They  have  taken  rank 
among  men.  They  are  no  longer  degraded  by  being 
looked  on  as  degraded.  They  no  longer  live  under  that 
withering  curse,  the  contempt  of  their  fellow-beings. 
The  tone  in  which  they  are  spoken  to  no  longer  ex- 
presses their  infinite  and  hopeless  depression.  They 
are  treated  as  men  ;  some  of  them  engage  in  lucrative 
pursuits  ;  all  the  paths  of  honor  as  well  as  of  gain  are 
open  to  them  ;  they  are  found  in  the  legislatures  ;  they 
fill  civil  offices  ;  they  have  military  appointments  ;  and 
in  all  these  conditions  acquit  themselves  honorably. 
Their  humanity  is  recognized  ;  and  without  this  recogni- 
tion men  pine  and  had  better  be  left  to  perish. 

I  have  no  thought  of  painting  these  islands  as  Edens. 
That  great  ignorance  prevails  among  the  emancipated 
people,  that  they  want  our  energy,  that  the  degradation 
of  slavery  has  not  vanished  all  at  once  with  the  name, 
this  T  need  not  tell  you.  No  miracle  has  been  wrought 
on  them.  But  their  present  lot,  compared  with  slavery, 
is  an  immense  good  ;  and  when  we  consider  that  as  yet 
we  have  seen  comparatively  nothing  of  the  blessed  in- 
fluences of  freedom,  we  ought  to  thank  God  with  some- 
thing of  their  own  fervor  for  the  vast  deliverance  which 
he  hath  vouchsafed  them. 

We  commemorate  with  transport  the  redemption  of  a 


404  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

nation  from  political  bondage  ;  but  this  is  a  light  burden 
compared  with  personal  slavery.  The  oppression  which 
these  United  States  threw  off  by  our  revolutionary 
struggle  was  the  perfection  of  freedom,  when  placed  by 
the  side  of  the  galling,  crushing,  intolerable  yoke  which 
bowed  the  African  to  the  dust.  Thank  God,  it  is  brok- 
en !  Thank  God,  our  most  injured  brethren  have  risen 
to  the  rank  of  men  !  Thank  God,  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand human  beings  have  been  made  free  ! 

These  are  the  natural  topics  suggested  by  this  day  ; 
but  there  are  still  higher  views,  to  w^hich  I  invite  your 
attention.  There  are  other  grounds  on  which  this  first 
of  August  should  be  hailed  with  gratitude  by  the  Chris- 
tian. If  I  saw  in  the  Emancipation  which  we  celebrate 
only  the  redemption  of  eight  hundred  thousand  fellow- 
creatures  from  the  greatest  wrong  on  earth,  I  should,  in- 
deed, rejoice  ;  but  I  know  not  that  I  should  commemo- 
rate it  by  public  solemnities.  This  particular  result 
moves  me  less  than  other  views,  which,  though  less  ob- 
vious, are  far  more  significant  and  full  of  promise. 

When  I  look  at  West-Indian  emancipation,  what 
strikes  me  most  forcibly  and  most  joyfully  is,  the  spirit 
in  which  it  had  its  origin.  What  broke  the  slaves* 
chain  ?  Did  a  foreign  invader  summon  them  to  his 
standard,  and  reward  them  with  freedom  for  their  help 
in  conquering  their  masters  ?  Or  did  they  owe  liberty 
to  their  own  exasperated  valor  ;  to  courage  maddened 
by  despair  ;  to  massacre  and  unsparing  revenge  .''  Or 
did  calculations  of  the  superior  profit  of  free  labor  per- 
suade the  owner  to  emancipation,  as  a  means  of  supe- 
rior gain  }  No  !  West-Indian  emancipation  was  the 
fruit  of  Christian  principle  acting  on  the  mind  and  heart 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  \\'T:ST-INDIES.  405 

of  a  great  people.      The   liberator  of  those   slaves  was 
Jesus  Christ.      That  voice  which  rebuked  disease   and 
death,  and  set  their  victims  free,  broke  the  heavier  chain 
of  slavery.      The  conflict  against  slavery  began  in  Eng- 
land  about   fifty  years   ago.     It  began  with   Christians. 
It  was  at  its  birth  a  Christian  enterprise.    Its  power  was 
in  the   consciences  and  generous  sympathy  of  men  who 
had  been  trained   in  the   school   of  Christ.      It  was  re- 
sisted   by  prejudice,    custom,  interest,  opulence,   pride, 
and  the  civil  power.      Almost  the  whole  weight   of  the 
commercial   class  was  at  first  thrown  into   the   opposite 
scale.     The   pohtician   dreaded  the  efFects   of  abolition 
on  the  wealth  and  revenue  of  the  nation.      The  king  did 
not  disguise  his  hostility  ;  and  I  need  not  tell  you  that  it 
found  little  favor  with   the  aristocracy.      The  tided  and 
proud   are  not  the  first   to   sympathize  with   the   abject. 
The  cause  had  nothing  to  rely  on  but  the  spirit  of  the 
English   people  ;   and   that   people  did  respond   to   the 
reasonings,  pleadings,  rebukes  of  Christian  philanthropy 
as  nation  never  did  before.      The  history  of  this  warfare 
cannot   be   read  without   seeing,  that,   once   at  least,  a 
great  nation  was  swayed  by  high  and  disinterested   prin- 
ciples.     Men  of  die  world  deride  the  notion  of  influenc- 
ing human  affairs  by  any  but  selfish  motives  ;  and  it  is  a 
melancholy   truth,   that   the  movements  of  nations  have 
done  much  to  confirm   the   darkest  views  of  human  na- 
ture.    What  a  track  of  crime,  desolation,  war,  we  are 
called  by  history  to  travel  over  !     Still,  history  is  light- 
ed up  by  great  names,  by  noble  deeds,  by  patriots  and 
martyrs  ;  and  especially  in  Emancipation  we  see  a  great 
nation  putting  forth  its  power  and  making  great  sacrifices 
for  a  distant,  degraded  race  of  men,  who  had  no  claims 
but  those   of  wronged  and  sufiering  humanity.      Some, 


406  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNFVERSARY  OF 

and  not  a  few,  have  blamed,  as  superfluous,  the  com- 
pensation given  by  England  to  the  planter  for  the  slaves. 
On  one  account  I  rejoice  at  it.  It  is  a  testimony  to  the 
disinterested  motives  of  the  nation.  A  people  groaning 
under  a  debt  which  would  crush  any  other  people  bor- 
rowed twenty  million  pounds  sterling,  a  hundred  million 
of  dollars,  and  paid  it  as  the  price  of  the  slaves'  free- 
dom. This  act  stands  alone  in  the  page  of  history  ;  and 
Emancipation  having  such  an  origin  deserves  to  be  sin- 
gled out  for  public  commemoration. 

What  gave  peculiar  interest  to  this  act  was  the  fallen, 
abject  state  of  the  people  on  whom  freedom  was  con- 
ferred at  such  a  cost.  They  were  not  Englishmen. 
They  had  no  claim  founded  on  common  descent,  on 
common  history,  or  any  national  bond.  There  was 
nothing  in  their  lot  to  excite  the  imagination.  They 
had  done  nothing  to  draw  regard.  They  weighed  noth- 
ing in  human  affairs.  They  belonged  to  no  nation. 
They  were  hardly  recognized  as  men.  Humanity  could 
hardly  wear  a  more  abject  form.  But  under  all  this 
abjectness,  under  that  black  skiti,  under  those  scars  of 
the  lash,  under  those  half  naked  bodies  put  up  to  auc- 
tion and  sold  as  cattle,  the  people  of  England  saw  the 
lineaments  of  humanity,  saw  fellow-creatures,  saw  the 
capacities  and  rights  and  immortal  destinies  of  men,  and 
in  the  spirit  of  brotherhood,  and  from  reverence  for  hu- 
manity, broke  their  chains. 

When  I  look  at  this  act,  I  do  not  stop  at  its  immedi- 
ate results,  at  the  emancipation  of  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand human  beings,  nor  do  I  look  at  the  act  as  standing 
alone.  1  look  at  the  spirit  from  which  it  sprung,  and 
see  here  a  grand  and  most  cheering  foundation  of  hu- 
man  hope.     I  see   that  Christianity  has  not  come  into 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  407 

the  world  in  vain.  I  see  that  the  blood  of  the  cross 
was  not  shed  in  vain.  I  see  that  the  prophecies  in  the 
Scriptures  of  a  mighty  change  in  human  affairs  were  not 
idle  words.  It  is  true  that  Christianity  has  done  little, 
compared  with  these  predictions.  The  corruptions  of 
our  age  who  is  so  blind  as  not  to  see  ?  But  that  a  new 
principle,  derived  from  Christianity  and  destined  to  ren- 
ovate the  earth,  is  at  work  among  these  various  ele- 
ments ;  that,  silently,  a  new  spirit  of  humanity,  a  new 
respect  for  human  nature,  a  new  comprehension  of  hu- 
man rights,  a  new  feeling  of  brotherhood,  and  new  ideas 
of  a  higher  social  state,  have  been  and  are  unfolding 
themselves  under  the  influences  of  Christian  truth  and 
Christian  civilization,,  who  can  deny.''  Society  is  not 
what  it  once  was.  Amidst  all  the  stir  of  selfish  pas- 
sion, the  still  voice  of  Christianity  is  heard  ;  a  diviner 
spirit  mixes,  however  imperfectly,  with  the  workings  of 
worldliness  ;  and  we  are  beginning  to  learn  the  mighty 
revolution  which  a  heavenly  faith  is  to  accomplish  here 
on  earth. 

Christianity  is  the  hope  of  the  world,  and  we  ought 
to  regard  every  conspicuous  manifestation  of  its  spirit 
and  power  as  an  era  in  human  history.  We  are  daz- 
zled by  revolutions  of  empires  ;  we  hope  much  from 
the  rise  or  fall  of  governments.  But  nothing  but  Chris- 
tianity can  regenerate  the  earth  ;  and  accordingly  we 
should  hail  with  joy  every  sign  of  a  clearer  comprehen- 
sion and  a  deeper  feeling  of  its  truths.  Christianity, 
truly  understood,  has  a  direct  tendency  to  that  renova- 
tion of  the  world  which  it  foretells.  It  is  not  an  ab- 
stract system,  secluding  the  disciple  from  his  kind  ;  but 
it  makes  him  one  with  his  race,  breaks  down  all  barriers 
between  him  and  his  brethren,  arms  him  whh  a  martyr's 


408  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

spirit  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  sends  him  forth  to  be  a 
saviour  of  the  lost  ;  and  just  as  far  as  Christianity  is 
thus  viewed  and  felt  by  its  followers  the  redemption  of 
the  world  draws  nigh.  These  views  of  rehgion  are 
making  their  way.  They  dawn  upon  us,  not  only  in 
Emancipation,  but  in  many  other  movements  of  our 
age  ;  not  that  they  have  ever  been  wholly  obscured  ; 
but  the  rank  which  they  hold  in  the  Christian  system, 
and  the  vast  social  changes  which  they  involve,  have 
not,  until  the  present  day,  been  dreamed  of. 

All  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  more  and  more 
seen  to  be  bonds  of  close,  spiritual,  reverential  union 
between  man  and  man  ;  and  this  is  the  most  cheering 
view  of  our  time.  Christianity  is  a  revelation  of  the 
infinite,  universal,  parental  love  of  God  towards  his  hu- 
man family,  comprehending  the  most  sinful,  descending 
to  the  most  fallen,  and  its  aim  is,  to  breathe  the  same 
love  into  its  disciples.  It  shows  us  Christ  tasting  death 
for  every  man,  and  it  summons  us  to  take  his  cross,  or 
to  participate  of  his  sufferings,  in  the  same  cause.  Its 
doctrine  of  Immortality  gives  infinite  worth  to  every  hu- 
man being  ;  for  every  one  is  destined  to  this  endless 
life.  The  doctrine  of  the  "  Word  made  flesh  "  shows 
us  God  uniting  himself  most  intimately  with  our  nature, 
manifesting  himself  in  a  human  form,  for  the  very  end 
of  making  us  partakers  of  his  own  perfection.  The 
doctrine  of  Grace,  as  it  is  termed,  reveals  the  Infinite 
Father  imparting  his  Holy  Spirit,  the  best  gift  he  can 
impart,  to  the  humblest  human  being  who  implores  it. 
Thus  love  and  reverence  for  human  nature,  a  love  for 
man  stronger  than  death,  is  the  very  spirit  of  Christian- 
ity. Undoubtedly  this  spirit  is  faintly  comprehended  by 
the  best  of  us.      Some  of  Its  most  striking  expressions 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  409 

are  still  derided  in  society.  Society  still  rests  on  self- 
ish principles.  Men  sympathize  still  with  the  prosper- 
ous and  great,  not  the  abject  and  down-trodden.  But 
amidst  this  degradation  brighter  glimpses  of  Christianity 
are  caught  than  before.  There  are  deeper,  wider  sym- 
pathies with  mankind.  The  idea  of  raising  up  the  mass 
of  human  beings  to  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  dig- 
nity is  penetrating  many  minds.  Among  the  signs  of  a 
blighter  day  perhaps  the  West-Indian  emancipation  is 
the  most  conspicuous  ;  for  in  this  the  rights  of  the  most 
despised  men  have  been  revered. 

There  are  some  among  us  at  the  present  moment  who 
are  v/aiting  for  the  speedy  coming  of  Christ.  They  ex- 
pect, before  another  year  closes,  to  see  him  in  the 
clouds,  to  hear  his  voice,  to  stand  before  his  judgment- 
seat.  These  illusions  spring  from  misinterpretation  of 
Scripture  language.  Christ  in  the  New  Testament  is 
said  to  come^  whenever  his  religion  breaks  out  in  new 
glory,,  or  gains  new  triumphs.  He  came  in  the  Holy 
Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  He  came  in  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem.,  which,  by  subverting  the  old 
ritual  law,  and  breaking  the  power  of  the  worst  ene- 
mies of  his  religion,  insured  to  it  new  victories.  He 
came  in  the  Reformation  of  the  church.  He  came  on 
this  day  four  years  ago,  when,  through  his  religion,  eight 
hundred  thousand  men  were  raised  from  the  lowest  deg- 
radation, to  the  rights,  and  dignity,  and  fellowship  of 
men.  Christ's  outward  appearance  is  of  little  mom.ent, 
compared  with  the  brighter  manifestation  of  his  spirit. 
The  Christian,  whose  inward  eyes  and  ears  are  touched 
by  God,  discerns  the  coming  of  Christ,  hears  the  sound 
of  his  chariot-wheels  and  the  voice  of  his  trumpet,  when 
no   other  perceives  them.     He  discerns   the  Saviour's 

VOL.  VI.  35 


410  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

advent  in  the  dawning  of  higher  truth  on  the  world,  in 
new  aspirations  of  the  church  after  perfection,  in  the 
prostration  of  prejudice  and  error,  in  brighter  expres- 
sions of  Christian  love,  in  more  enlightened  and  intense 
consecration  of  the  Christian  to  the  cause  of  humanity, 
freedom,  and  religion.  Christ  comes  in  the  conversion, 
the  regeneration,  the  emancipation  of  the  world. 

You  here  see  why  it  is  that  I  rejoice  in  the  great 
event  which  this  day  commemorates.  To  me  this  event 
does  not  stand  alone.  It  is  a  sign  of  the  triumph  of 
Christianity,  and  a  presage  and  herald  of  grander  victo- 
ries of  truth  and  humanity.  Christianity  did  not  do  its 
last  work  when  it  broke  the  slave's  chain.  No  ;  this 
was  but  a  type  of  what  it  is  to  achieve.  Since  the  Af- 
rican was  emancipated  the  drunkard  has  been  set  free. 
We  may  count  the  disenthralled  from  intemperance  by 
hundreds  of  thousands,  almost  by  milhons,  and  this 
work  has  been  achieved  by  Christian  truth  and  Chris- 
tian love.  In  this  we  have  a  new  proof  of  the  coming 
of  Christ  in  his  kingdom  ;  and  the  grand  result  of  these 
and  other  kindred  movements  of  our  times  should  be  to 
give  us  a  new  faith  in  what  Christianity  is  to  accom- 
plish. We  need  this  faith.  We  are  miserably  wanting 
in  it.  We  scarcely  believe  what  we  see  of  the  triumphs 
of  the  cross.  This  is  the  most  disastrous  unbelief  of 
our  times.  I  am  pointed  now  and  then  to  an  infidel,  as 
he  is  called,  a  man  who  denies  Christianity.  But  there 
is  a  sadder  sight.  It  is  that  of  thousands  and  millions 
who  profess  Christianity,  but  have  no  faith  in  its  power 
to  accomplish  the  work  to  which  it  is  ordained,  no  faith 
in  the  power  of  Christ  over  the  passions,  prejudices, 
and  corrupt  institutions  of  men,  no  faith  in  the  end  of 
his  mission,  in  the  regenerating  energy  of  his  spirit  and 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  411 

truth.  Let  this  day,  my  friends,  breathe  into  all  our 
souls  a  new  trust  in  the  destinies  of  our  race.  Let  us 
look  on  the  future  with  new  hope.  I  see,  indeed,  num- 
berless obstructions  to  the  regeneration  of  the  world. 
But  is  not  a  deep  feeling  of  the  corruptions  of  the  world 
fermenting  in  many  breasts  ?  Is  there  not  a  new  thirst 
for  an  individual  and  social  life  more  in  harmony  with 
Jesus  Christ  than  has  yet  existed  ."'  Can  great  truths, 
after  having  been  once  developed,  die  ?  Is  not  the  hu- 
man soul  opening  itself  more  and  more  to  the  divine 
perfection  and  beauty  of  Christ's  character  .''  And  who 
can  foretell  what  this  mighty  agency  is  to  accomplish  in 
the  world  ?  The  present  day  is,  indeed,  a  day  of  dis- 
trust, complaint,  and  anxious  forebodings.  On  every 
side  voices  of  fear  and  despondency  reach  us.  Let  us 
respond  to  them  with  a  voice  of  faith  and  hope.  Let  us 
not  shut  our  eyes  ungratefully  on  the  good  already 
wrought  in  our  times  ;  and,  seeing  in  this  the  pledge  of 
higher  blessings,  let  us  arm  ourselves  with  manly  resolu- 
tion to  do  or  suffer,  each  in  his  own  sphere,  whatever 
may  serve  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  holier  and  happier 
age.  It  may  be,  as  some  believe,  that  this  age  is  to  be 
preceded  by  fearful  judgments,  by  "days  of  vengeance," 
by  purifying  fire  ;  but  the  triumphs  of  Christianity,  how- 
ever deferred,  are  not  the  less  surely  announced  by  what 
it  has  already  achieved. 

I  have  now  given  the  more  general  views  which  be^ 
long  to  this  occasion  ;  but  T  cannot  close  this  Address 
without  coming  nearer  home,  and  touching,  however 
slightly,  some  topics  of  a  more  personal  character,  and 
in  which  we  have  a  more  particular  interest. 

I  am  a  stranger  among  you  ;   but,  when  I  look  round, 


412  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

I  feel  as  if  the  subject  of  this  Address  peculiarly  befitted 
this  spot.  Where  am  I  now  pleading  the  cause  and 
speaking  the  praises  of  liberty  ?  Not  in  crowded  cities, 
where,  amidst  men's  works,  and  luxuries,  and  wild  spec- 
ulations, and  eager  competitions  for  gain,  the  spirit  of 
liberty  often  languishes  ;  but  amidst  towering  mountains, 
embosoming  peaceful  vales.  Amidst  these  vast  works 
of  God  the  soul  naturally  goes  forth,  and  cannot  endure 
the  thought  of  a  chain.  Your  free  air,  which  w^e  come 
to  inhale  for  health,  breathes  into  us  something  better 
than  health,  even  a  freer  spirit.  Mountains  have  always 
been  famed  for  nourishing  brave  souls  and  the  love  of 
liberty.  At  Thermopylae,  in  many  a  fastness  of  Switz- 
erland, in  the  gorges  of  mountains,  the  grand  battles  of 
liberty  have  been  fought.  Even  in  this  country  slavery 
hardly  sets  foot  on  the  mountains.  She  curses  the 
plain  ;  but  as  soon  as  you  begin  to  ascend  the  highlands 
of  the  South  slavery  begins  to  disappear.  West  Vir- 
ginia and  East  Tennessee  are  cultivated  chiefly  by  the 
muscles  of  freemen  ;  and  could  these  districts  be  erected 
into  States,  they  would  soon  clear  themselves  of  the 
guilt  and  shame  of  enslaving  their  brethren.  Men  of 
Berkshire  !  whose  nerves  and  souls  the  mountain  air  has 
braced,  you  surely  will  respond  to  him  who  speaks  of 
the  blessings  of  freedom  and  the  misery  of  bondage.  I 
feel  as  if  the  feeble  voice  which  now  addresses  you  must 
find  an  echo  amidst  these  forest-crowned  heights.  Do 
they  not  impart  something  of  their  own  power  and  lofti- 
ness to  men's  souls  ?  Should  our  Commonwealth  ever 
be  invaded  by  victorious  armies,  freedom's  last  asylum 
would  be  here.  Here  may  a  free  spirit,  may  reverence 
for  all  human  rights,  may  sympathy  for  all  the  oppressed 
may  a  stern,  solemn  purpose  to  give  no  sanction  to  op 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  413 

pression,  take  stronger  and  stronger  possession  of  men's 
minds,  and  from  these  mountains  may  generous  impulses 
spread  far  and  wide  ! 

The  joy  of  this  occasion  is  damped  by  one  thought. 
Our  own  country  is,  in  part,  the  land  of  slavery  ;  and 
slavery  becomes  more  hideous  here  than  anywhere  else 
by  its  contrast  with  our  free  institutions.  It  is  deformity 
married  to  beauty.  It  is  as  if  a  flame  from  hell  were  to 
burst  forth  in  the  regions  of  the  blessed.  No  other  evil 
in  our  country  but  this  should  alarm  us.  Our  other  dif- 
ficulties are  the  mists,  dimming  our  prospects  for  a  mo- 
ment. This  is  a  dark  cloud,  scowling  over  our  whole 
land  ;  and  within  it  the  prophetic  ear  hears  the  low  mut- 
tering of  the  angry  thunder.  We  in  the  Free  States  try 
to  escape  the  reproach  which  falls  on  America  by  saying 
that  this  institution  is  not  ours,  that  the  foot  of  the  slave 
never  pressed  our  soil ;  but  we  cannot  fly  from  the 
shame  or  guilt  of  the  institution  as  long  as  we  give  it  any 
support.  Most  unhappily,  there  are  provisions  of  the 
Constitution  binding  us  to  give  it  support.  Let  us  re- 
solve to  free  ourselves  from  these.  Let  us  say  to  the 
South,  "  We  shall  use  no  force  to  subvert  your  slavery  ; 
neither  will  we  use  it  to  uphold  the  evil."  Let  no 
temptations,  no  love  of  gain,  seduce  us  to  abet  or  sanc- 
tion this  wrong.  There  is  something  worse  than  to  be 
a  slave.  It  is,  to  make  other  men  slaves.  Better  be 
trampled  in  the  dust  than  trample  on  a  fellow-creature. 
Much  as  I  shrink  from  the  evils  inflicted  by  bondage  on 
the  millions  who  bear  it,  I  would  sooner  endure  them 
than  inflict  them  on  a  brother.  Freemen  of  the  moun- 
tains !  as  far  as  you  have  power,  remove  from  your- 
selves, from  our  dear  and  venerable  mother,  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts,  and  from  all  the  Free 
35* 


414  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

States,  the  baseness  and  guilt  of  ministering  to  slavery, 
of  acting  as  the  slave-holder's  police,  of  lending  him  arms 
and  strength  to  secure  his  victim.  I  deprecate  all  po- 
litical action  on  slavery  except  for  one  end,  and  this  end 
is,  to  release  the  Free  States  from  all  connexion  with 
this  oppressive  institution,  to  sever  slavery  wholly  from 
the  national  government,  to  make  it  exclusively  the 
concern  of  the  States  in  which  it  exists.  For  this  end 
memorials  should  be  poured  in  upon  Congress  to  obtain 
from  that  body  such  modifications  of  the  laws,  and  such 
propositions  to  amend  the  Constitution,  as  will  set  us 
free  from  obligation  to  sanction  slavery.  This  done, 
political  action  on  the  subject  ought  to  cease.  We  shall 
then  have  no  warrant  to  name  slavery  in  Congress,  or 
any  duty  to  perform  with  direct  reference  to  it,  except 
by  that  moral  influence  which  every  man  is  bound  to 
exert  against  every  form  of  evil. 

There  are  some  people  here,  more  kind  than  wise, 
who  are  unwilhng  that  any  action  or  sensibility  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  should  spring  up  at  the  North,  from 
their  apprehensions  of  the  danger  of  emancipation.  The 
danger  of  emancipation  !  this  parrot-phrase,  caught  from 
the  South,  is  thought  by  many  a  sufficient  answer  to  all 
the  pleas  that  can  be  urged  in  favor  of  the  slave.  But 
the  lesson  of  this  day  is,  the  safety  of  emancipation. 
The  West-Indian  Islands  teach  us  this  lesson  with  a 
thousand  tongues.  Emancipation  can  hardly  take  place 
under  more  unfavorable  circumstances  than  it  encoun- 
tered in  those  islands.  The  master  abhorred  it,  repelled 
it  as  long  as  possible,  submitted  to  it  only  from  force, 
and  consequently  did  little  to  mitigate  its  evils,  or  to 
conciliate  the  freed  bondman.  In  those  islands  the 
slaves  were  eight  or  ten  times  more  numerous  than  the 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  415 

whites.  Yet  perfect  order  has  followed  emancipation. 
Since  this  event  the  mihtary  force  has  been  reduced, 
and  the  colored  men,  instead  of  breaking  into  riot,  are 
among  the  soldiers  by  whom  it  is  to  be  suppressed.  In 
this  country,  the  white  population  of  the  South  exceeds 
in  number  the  colored  ;  and  who  that  knows  the  two 
classes  can  apprehend  danger  from  the  former  in  case  of 
emancipation  .''  Holding  all  the  property,  all  the  intel- 
lectual, the  civil,  the  military  power,  and  distinguished 
by  courage,  it  seems  incredible  that  the  white  race  should 
tremble  before  the  colored,  should  be  withheld  by  fear 
from  setting  them  free.  If  the  alarm  be  real,  it  can  be 
explained  only  by  the  old  observation,  that  the  injurious 
are  prone  to  fear,  that  men  naturally  suspect  and  dread 
those  whom  they  wrong.  All  tyrants  are  jealous,  and 
persuade  themselves,  that,  were  they  to  loosen  the  reins, 
lawlessness,  pillage,  murder,  would  disorganize  society. 
But  emancipation  conferred  deliberately  and  conscien- 
tiously is  safe.  So  say  facts,  and  reason  says  the  same. 
Chains  are  not  the  necessary  bonds  of  society.  Oppres- 
sion is  not  the  rock  on  which  states  rest.  To  keep  the 
peace  you  need  not  make  the  earth  a  province  of  Satan  ; 
in  other  words,  you  need  not  establish  wrong  and  out- 
rage by  law.  The  way  to  keep  men  from  cutting  your 
throats  is,  not  to  put  them  under  the  lash,  to  extort  their 
labor  by  force,  to  spoil  them  of  their  earnings,  to  pamper 
yourselves  out  of  their  compelled  toil,  and  to  keep  them 
in  brutal  ignorance.  Do  not,  do  not  believe  this.  Be- 
lieve, if  you  will,  that  seeds  of  thistles  will  yield  lux- 
uriant crops  of  wheat ;  believe  that  drought  will  fer- 
tilize your  fields  ;  but  do  not  beheve  that  you  must  rob 
and  crush  your  fellow-creatures,  to  make  them  harmless, 
to  keep  the  state  in  order  and  peace.     O,  do  not  im- 


4  [  6  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF 

agine  that  God  has  laid  on  any  one  the  necessity  of  doing 
wrong  ;  that  He,  who  secures  the  blessed  harmony  of 
the  universe  by  wise  and  beneficent  laws,  has  created  a 
world  in  which  all  pure  and  righteous  laws  must  be 
broken  to  preserve  the  show  of  peace  !  I  honor  free 
inquiry,  and  willingly  hear  my  cherished  opinions  ques- 
tioned ;  but  there  are  certain  truths  which  I  can  no  more 
doubt  than  my  own  existence.  That  God  is  just  and 
good,  and  that  justice  and  goodness  are  his  laws,  and 
are  at  once  the  safety  and  glory  of  his  creatures,  I  can 
as  little  question  as  that  the  whole  is  greater  than  the 
part.  When  I  am  told  that  society  can  only  subsist  by 
robbing  men  of  their  dearest  rights,  my  reason  is  as 
much  insulted  as  if  I  w^ere  gravely  taught  that  effects  re- 
quire no  cause,  or  that  it  is  the  nature  of  yonder  beauti- 
ful stream  to  ascend  these  mountains,  or  to  return  to  its 
source.  The  doctrine,  that  violence,  oppression,  inhu- 
manity, is  an  essential  element  of  society,  is  so  revolting, 
that,  did  I  believe  it,  I  would  say,  let  society  perish,  let 
man  and  his  works  be  swept  away,  and  the  earth  be 
abandoned  to  the  brutes.  Better  that  the  globe  should 
be  tenanted  by  brutes  than  brutalized  men.  No  !  it  is 
safe  to  be  just,  to  respect  men's  rights,  to  treat  our 
neighbours  as  ourselves  ;  and  any  doctrine  hostile  to  this 
is  born  of  the  Evil  One.  Men  do  not  need  to  be 
crushed.  A  wise  kindness  avails  with  them  more  than 
force.  Even  the  insane  are  disarmed  by  kindness.  Once 
the  madhouse,  with  its  dens,  fetters,  straight-waistcoats, 
whips,  horrible  punishments,  at  which  humanity  now 
shudders  and  the  blood  boils  with  indignation,  was 
thought  just  as  necessary  as  slavery  is  now  deemed  at 
the  South.  But  w^e  have  learned,  at  last,  that  human 
nature,   even   when  robbed  of  reason,   can   be   ruled, 


EMANCIPATION  IX  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  417 

calmed,  restored,  by  wise  kindness  ;  that  it  was  only 
maddened  and  made  more  desperate  by  the  chains  im- 
posed to  keep  it  from  outrage  and  murder.  Treat  men 
as  men,  and  they  will  not  prove  wild  beasts.  We  first 
rob  them  of  their  humanity,  and  then  chain  them  because 
they  are  not  human.  What  a  picture  of  slavery  is 
given  by  the  common  argument  for  its  continuance  ! 
The  slaves,  we  are  told,  must  be  kept  under  the  lash, 
or  they  will  turn  murderers.  Two  millions  and  a  half 
of  our  fellow-creatures  at  the  South,  we  are  assured, 
have  the  seeds  of  murder  in  their  hearts,  and  must  be 
stripped  of  all  human  rights  for  the  safety  of  their  neigh- 
bours. If  such  be  a  slave-country,  the  sooner  it  is  de- 
populated the  better.  But  it  is  not  true.  A  more  in- 
nocent race  than  the  African  does  not  exist  on  the  earth. 
They  are  less  given  to  violence  and  murder  than  we 
Anglo-Saxons.  But  when  did  wrong  ever  want  excuse  ? 
When  did  oppression  ever  fail  to  make  out  a  good  cause 
in  its  own  eyes  ? 

The  truth  is,  that  slavery  is  perpetuated  at  the  South, 
not  from  the  fear  of  massacre,  but  from  a  stronger  prin- 
ciple. A  respected  slave-holder  said  to  rne  not  long 
ago,  ''  The  question  of  slavery  is  a  question  of  Proper- 
ty, and  property  is  dearer  to  a  man  than  life."  The 
master  holds  fast  his  slave  because  he  sees  in  him,  not 
a  wild  beast,  but  a  profitable  chattel.  Mr.  Clay  has 
told  us  that  the  slaves  are  worth  in  the  market,  I  think, 
twelve  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and  smiles  at  the 
thought  of  calling  men  to  surrender  such  a  mass  of 
property.  It  is  not  because  they  are  so  fierce,  but  so 
profitable,  that  they  are  kept  in  chains.  Were  they 
meek  angels  from  God's  throne,  imprisoned  for  a  while 
in  human  frames,  and  were  they  at  the  same  time  worth 


418  ADDRESS  ON  THE  ANNRT^RSARY  OF 

twelve  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  the  market,  com* 
paratively  few,  I  fear,  would  be  suffered  to  return  to 
their  native  skies,  as  long  as  the  chain  could  fetter  them 
to  the  plantation.  I  know  that  there  are  generous  ex- 
ceptions to  the  spirit  of  slavery  as  now  portrayed  ;  but 
this  spirit  in  the  main  is  mercenary.  I  know  that  other 
considerations  than  this  of  property,  that  considera- 
tions of  prudence  and  benevolence,  help  to  confirm  the 
slave-holder  in  his  aversion  to  emancipation.  There 
are  mixed  motives  for  perpetuating  slavery,  as  for  al- 
most all  human  actions.  But  the  grand  motive  is  Gain, 
the  love  of  Money,  the  unwilliness  to  part  with  Proper- 
ty ;  and  were  this  to  yield  to  justice  and  humanity,  the 
dread  of  massacre  would  not  long  retard  emancipation. 
My  friends,  your  compassion  is  often  called  forth  by 
predictions  of  massacre,  of  butchered  children,  of  vio- 
lated women,  in  case  of  emancipation.  But  do  not 
waste  your  sympathies  on  possible  evils,  w4iich  wisdom 
and  kindness  may  avert.  Keep  some  of  your  tears  and 
tenderness  for  what  exists  ;  for  the  poor  girl  whose  in- 
nocence has  no  protection  ;  for  the  wife  and  mother 
who  may  be  widowed  and  made  childless  before  night 
by  a  stroke  of  the  auctioneer's  hammer  ;  for  the  man 
subjected  to  the  whip  of  a  brutal  overseer,  and  hunted, 
if  he  flies,  by  blood-hounds,  and  shot  down,  if  he  out- 
strips his  pursuers.  For  the  universe,  I  would  not  let 
loose  massacre  on  the  Southern  States,  or  on  any  popu- 
lation. Sooner  would  I  have  all  the  slaves  perish  than 
achieve  their  freedom  by  promiscuous  carnage.  But  I 
see  no  necessity  of  carnage.  I  am  sure  that  to  treat 
men  with  justice  and  humanity  is  not  the  way  to  turn 
them  into  robbers  or  assassins.  Undoubtedly  wisdom 
is  to  be  used  in  conferring  this  great  good.     We  ask  no 


EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  BRITISH  WEST-INDIES.  419 

precipitate  action  at  the  South  ;  we  dictate  no  mode  of 
conferring  freedom.  We  ask  only  a  settled  purpose  to 
bring  slavery  to  an  end  ;  and  we  are  sure  that  this  will 
devise  a  safe  and  happy  way  of  exercising  justice  and 
love. 

Am  I  asked,  what  is  the  duty  of  the  North  in  regard 
to  slavery  ?  On  this  subject  I  have  lately  written  ;  I 
will  only  say,  I  recommend  no  crusade  against  slavery, 
no  use  of  physical  or  legislative  power  for  its  destruc- 
tion, no  irruption  into  the  South  to  tamper  with  the 
slave,  or  to  repeal  or  resist  the  laws.  Our  duties  on 
this  subject  are  plain.  First,  we  must  free  ourselves, 
as  I  have  said,  from  all  constitutional  or  legal  obligations 
to  uphold  slavery.  In  the  next  place,  we  must  give 
free  and  strong  expression  to  our  reprobation  of  slavery. 
The  North  has  but  one  weapon,  moral  force,  the  utter- 
ance of  moral  judgment,  moral  feeling,  and  religious 
conviction.  I  do  not  say  that  this  alone  is  to  subvert 
slavery.  Providence  never  accomplishes  its  ends  by  a 
single  instrument.  All  social  changes  come  from  mixed 
motives,  from  various  impulses,  and  slavery  is  to  fall 
through  various  causes.  But  among  these  a  high 
place  will  belong  to  the  general  conviction  of  its  evils 
and  wrongs.  Opinion  is  stronger  than  kings,  mobs, 
lynch  laws,  or  any  other  laws  for  repressing  thought  and 
speech.  Whoever  spreads  through  his  circle,  be  it 
wide  or  narrow,  just  opinions  and  feelings  in  regard  to 
slavery,  hastens  its  fall.  There  is  one  point  on  which 
your  moral  influence  may  be  exerted  with  immediate 
effect.  Should  a  slave-hunter  ever  profane  these  moun- 
tainous retreats  by  seeking  here  a  flying  bondman,  re- 
gard him  as  a  legalized  robber.  Oppose  no  force  to 
him  ;  you  need  not  do  it.     Your  contempt  and  indigna- 


41 
420        ADDRESS  ON  EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  WEST-INDIES. 

tion  will  be  enough  to  disarm  the  "  man-stealer "  of 
the  unholy  power  conferred  on  him  by  unrighteous  laws. 
I  began  this  subject  in  hope,  and  in  hope  I  end.  I 
have  turned  aside  to  speak  of  tlie  great  stain  on  our 
country  which  makes  us  the  by-word  and  scorn  of  the 
nations  ;  but  I  do  not  despair.  Mighty  powers  are  at 
work  in  the  world.  Who  can  stay  them  ?  God's  word 
has  gone  forth,  and  ''  it  cannot  return  to  him  void." 
A  new  comprehension  of  the  Christian  spirit,  —  a  new 
reverence  for  humanity,  a  new  feeling  of  brotherhood, 
and  of  all  men's  relation  to  the  common  Father,  — 
this  is  among  the  signs  of  our  times.  We  see  it  ;  do 
we  not  feel  it  ?  Before  this  all  oppressions  are  to  fall. 
Society,  silently  pervaded  by  this,  is  to  change  its  as- 
pect of  universal  warfare  for  peace.  The  power  of 
selfishness,  all-grasping  and  seemingly  invincible,  is  to 
yield  to  this  diviner  energy.  The  song  of  angels,  ''  On 
Earth  Peace,"  will  not  always  sound  as  fiction.  O 
come,  thou  kingdom  of  Heaven,  for  which  we  daily 
pray  !  Come,  Friend  and  Saviour  of  the  race,  who 
didst  shed  thy  blood  on  the  cross  to  reconcile  man  to 
man,  and  earth  to  Heaven  !  Come,  ye  predicted  ages 
of  righteousness  and  love,  for  which  the  faithful  have  so 
long  yearned  !  Come,  Father  Almighty,  and  crown 
with  thine  omnipotence  the  humble  strivings  of  thy  chil- 
dren to  subvert  oppression  and  wrong,  to  spread  light 
and  freedom,  peace  and  joy,  the  truth  and  spirit  of  thy 
Son,  through  the  whole  earth  ! 


END    OF    VOL.    VI. 


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